


Gifted

by Dreamshaper



Series: Gifted [1]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Also fluff, And angst, F/F, Holtzbert - Freeform, I guess I can add it to the tags now, and fight scenes, and there'll be a few surprises on the way, au-ish, it's GB meets X-Men haha, some don't, some parts follow the movie, they all got mutant powers :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:47:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10078022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: Erin Gilbert's on tenure track at Columbia, and her life is boring, but fine - until her former best friend Abby publishes their book without her permission. When Erin goes to see Abby about this, she has no idea of the changes awaiting her - and of the gifted people she'll meet along the way. A re-telling of Ghostbusters with a twist ;)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to JE_Glass, who let me ramble on and on about this fic on tumblr - thanks for your endless patience and support, friend :D

“Dr Bronstein. Dr Gibbons”, Erin greeted as she walked past said men, earning brief nods in reply; she, in turn, gave nods to several other colleagues she encountered on her way to the professor’s lounge, eager to get some coffee before she’d move on to the big hall for her lecture.

She was quite excited, a spring in her step – it was the first time she’d teach in the big hall, and she’d been looking forward to it all weekend.

Her enthusiasm got a bit dampened though when she entered the lounge and immediately, her ex-boyfriend zeroed in on her, calling out “Erin!” as he approached her.

“Phil”, she replied coldly, barely glancing at him as she helped herself to some coffee; he finally had stopped calling over the weekend, and she’d thought he had gotten the hint, but apparently, that wasn’t the case, “what do you want?”

“To talk”, Phil gave back, “what’s going on Erin? Things were going fine between us and then you just dump me from one minute to the next? Why?”

_Because I let down my guard and heard what you really think of me._

“Because this doesn’t feel right”, Erin said, knowing she couldn’t tell him what had gone through her mind – he’d never understand, not even if she’d try to explain.

“And I’m not going to discuss this with you”, she added with a stern look at him as she added milk and sugar to her coffee, “especially not here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to teach.”

She was glad that she had her coffee cup and her briefcase to keep her hands full, as it would stop Phil from noticing that they were shaking; he opened his mouth as if to protest, then apparently remembered that a bunch of colleagues were around and that it wouldn’t be smart to make a scene, only giving her a hard look instead.

Erin held his gaze, even though every instinct she had wanted to make her look away; she bravely fought those impulses down though, and felt a sense of triumph when Phil was the first to break the eye contact.

“Have a good day”, she said, then turned and left without giving him the chance to say anything; she could feel his eyes on her back, and just for a second, she was tempted to _listen_ , then immediately pushed that though out of her mind, scolding herself for even considering it.

_No. It’s bad enough that it happened last week and ruined the relationship. You know you can’t make use of it, you can’t._

Her grip on the coffee mug and on her briefcase tightened a bit as she got the urge under control; and by the time she arrived in the lecture hall, it was completely gone again, allowing her to focus on her preparations for the upcoming lecture.

“Teaching in the big hall”, she mumbled to herself after she had gone through possible questions and had made sure the calculations she had prepared on the large whiteboard were correct, “big hall, big hall.”

In an attempt to psyche herself up, Erin swung her arms as she kept repeating “Big hall” to herself, feeling rather nervous about the class; gripping her desk, she bent forward for a few big breaths, mumbling “big hall” yet again as she told herself she could do this.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she nearly jumped to the ceiling, eyes wide and heart racing in her chest when she let out a strangled “argh!” and spun around to face the person.

“Sorry”, the man said, an elder guy with thin, white-blonde hair and a bemused look on his face, making her realize how ridiculous she apparently had looked, “I didn’t mean to startle you. Um, Dr Erin Gilbert?”

“Yes”, Erin gave back, taking in a deep breath to calm her racing heart as she straightened her tweed blazer, “how can I help you?”

“Ed Mulgrave”, he introduced himself, shaking her hand, “I’m here about something you wrote?”

“Oh”, Erin let out, feeling a brief sense of pride – it wasn’t often, after all, that people who did not work for the university came to her about her publications, “um, sure. Which publication…?”

She had been expecting several answers, and had been ready for all of them; perhaps, she’d later think to herself, she should have let her guard down, perhaps, it wouldn’t have blindsided her as much as it had when he said the last words she’d been expecting to hear.

“Oh, no, no”, Mulgrave said, unaware that he was about to verbally destroy the ground beneath her feet, “it’s about your book.”

* * *

It was harder to keep her guard up when she was upset, and so, Erin got a few unwanted and unnecessary snippets from the people around her as she got out of the cab and stared at the college where Abby, according to the Amazon page of that dreadful book, was working now; she took a moment to breathe deeply, shutting out all thoughts but her own, then strode into the building, determined to confront Abby about this and talk her into taking the book down.

It didn’t take her long to find the lab where Abby apparently worked, the sign on the door proclaiming that Dr Abigail Yates and Dr Jillian Holtzmann were sharing said lab; even though she was angry, Erin still was too polite to enter without knocking, pushing the door open after she’d rapped her knuckles against it twice and calling out “Hello?” as she stepped into the shockingly cluttered lab.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time!” she heard Abby call out from somewhere behind all that clutter, and reacted stronger to the woman’s voice than she had expected, her heart clenching up with sudden longing for the only friend she’d had.

“Has been a while, hasn’t it”, she made herself say, just when a young man carrying a plastic bag with takeout stepped through the door; and clearly, Abby had been talking to him, as she rounded the corner a moment later, raising an eyebrow when she saw Erin and the delivery guy stand there.

“Well, well, well”, she let out, “Erin.”

“Abby”, Erin replied, not sure what else to say; the delivery guy raised his hand and said “Benny”, and Abby rolled her eyes, sounding annoyed when she told him that she knew who he was and demanded her lunch.

“Show Miss Gilbert to the door, please”, she added once she had gotten said lunch from him and had paid him; he responded by trying to take hold of Erin’s arm, and she glared at him as she pulled it out of his loose grasp, glad when he didn’t try again, but simply shrugged at Abby and left.

“Abby”, Erin said the moment the man was out the door, “you put the book online! Without my permission!”

“I don’t _need_ your permission”, Abby gave back, her audacity taking Erin’s breath away; and before she could get the impulse under control, she reached out, just wanting to see if Abby really thought that or if she was just trying to provoke her.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been the image of a solid brick wall she encountered.

“Seriously?” Abby said, amused and a bit sardonic, “good try Erin, we might have not spoken in years, but I didn’t forget you’re a mindreader.”

“Abby!” Erin hissed, horrified, glancing around as if some of her Columbia colleagues might pop up out of nowhere, “don’t… just say it like that!”

“Ah, still hiding it, I see”, Abby replied, “no surprise there. You should really count yourself lucky your mutation isn’t one of the very visible ones.”

“Abby!” Erin repeated, her dismay only growing; Abby shrugged her protest off, then dismissed her completely and focused on her soup instead, marching off to yell at the delivery service about the lack of wontons, leaving Erin just standing there, torn between her anger about the unauthorized book release and her mortification at how carelessly Abby had spoken of what was both a gift and a curse for her.

“You smell like coconut."

Erin jumped at the unexpected voice from behind, and twirled around – apparently, she thought to herself somewhat sourly, today was the day to be startled by people talking unexpectedly from somewhere behind her; her gaze landed on an oddly dressed woman with somewhat shaggy blonde hair, a smirk curling her lips, eyes twinkling behind yellow tinted glasses.

“Hello, sorry?” Erin replied, not quite sure what to think of this, the woman’s smirk widening, “who, who’re you?”

“Holtzmann”, she replied, swinging her feet off the table and getting up from her seat; she sauntered over to where Erin stood and shook her hand, the physicist feeling oddly fascinated by her as she stammered out “E-Erin”, only for Abby to literally appear out of thin air next to the blonde and sling one arm around her shoulders, horrifying Erin all over again with her casual use of her power.

And Holtzmann didn’t seem startled to slightest, so certainly, Abby used her teleport like this all the time around her.

“Don’t get too close to her, Holtzmann”, she said, Erin taking note of how the blonde kept her gaze focused on her the whole time though, “she’ll ask you to write a book with her and then squash your dreams.”

“Okay”, Erin mumbled, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice; unperturbed, Abby went on, and despite herself, Erin perked up again a bit at what her former best friend said next. “Holtzmann is a brilliant engineer, works here in the lab with me. We’re making the things you and me only wrote about a reality here, we’re incredibly close to finishing the reversed tractor beam.”

“You’re building a reverse tractor beam?” Erin said, realizing too late that she had sounded much too eager; Holtzmann nodded, and winked at her, and that wink made her weak in the knees. There was something about this woman which fascinated her, and she couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it seemed to come from some primal, instinctual part of her brain, and certainly had nothing to do with logic and reason.

“Abby”, Holtzmann said, still without looking away from Erin for even a second, “why don’t we let her listen to the EVP?”

“EVP”, Erin repeated, raising an eyebrow; Holtzmann started to explain what it was, only for the physicist to interrupt her and tell her that she knew what the abbreviation meant. “And there’s never been one substantiated”, she added with a little, all too forced laugh – part of her so desperately wanted it to be true, just so she would know that they really hadn’t been crazy, all those years ago.

Her dismissive tone, in turn, made Abby all huffy, and she grumbled something about being cocky at Erin – before she vanished with an audibly _poof_ sound and a small cloud of black and blue-ish smoke, only to reappear on the other side of the lab in front of an old-fashioned tape player, looking back at Holtzmann and Erin impatiently, the blonde smirking at Erin, a hint of mischief in her eyes when she spoke up.

“Always so impatient”, she commented, strolling to where Abby was waiting, Erin following after a moment, “Abs, you keep forgetting that I have to walk. Not everyone can have fancy teleport powers like you.”

“You’re just jealous”, Abby gave back, the smile on her face telling Erin that this wasn’t the first time they bantered like this; she wondered, then, if Holtzmann had some sort of power too or if she was a perfectly normal human, didn’t dare to ask though, and telling herself that she shouldn’t care, anyway – she had lived years without making much use of her power, and she certainly wasn’t planning to use it in the future, even though a tiny, treacherous part of her envied Abby and Holtzmann for the ease with which they spoke about Abby’s power.

Then, Abby and Holtzmann played the EVP for her, and it was a joke, a disgusting one, at that; and even though Erin told herself she should have seen this coming, she felt oddly disappointed and hurt, unable to keep herself from glaring at the two as she grabbed her bag.

“I thought we could have an adult conversation about this”, she said primly, “but apparently, we can’t.”

“Erin”, Abby called after her as she started to walk away, “if you don’t believe in this stuff anymore, why were you looking for the book?”

“A man came to see me, at my work!” Erin defended her interest in the publication, “telling me his building’s haunted. It was obviously a joke.”

She laughed nervously again, but Abby and Holtzmann clearly did not think that it was a joke – they exchanged one look, then got moving, Holtzmann grabbing a silver duffel bag which looked way too heavy to let her carry it with the ease she picked it up with while Abby snatched up various recording equipment, teleporting all over the lab to collect it all.

“Abby!” Erin tried to gain her attention, to no avail though, “Abby, wait, take the—”

They were about to rush out the door and just leave her standing there, and Erin knew she couldn’t let that happen, not with what was at stake; and so, she acted without thinking, bringing one hand up, the door slamming shut a second before either of the two could step through.

“Take the book down”, Erin said as Abby turned to look at her with her eyebrows raised, “please? If someone at Columbia finds this… Abby, please.”

“…introduce us to this guy with the haunted building”, Abby gave back, and Erin’s relief nearly made her weak in the knees, “then maybe – maybe! – I’ll take the book down. For a while.”

“Sure, yes, fine”, Erin agreed at once, figuring that this was better than nothing, “he’d love to meet you.”

“Alright, then let’s go!” Abby impatiently said, practically yanking the door open again; she hurried outside with Holtzmann right next to her, and Erin followed after a moment, telling herself that she’d make the introductions and then go, that she wouldn’t spend a minute longer than necessary with these people.

She had no idea how wrong she was.


	2. Chapter 2

Erin wasn’t even sure why she had gone into Aldridge Mansion with the other two, but here she was; Holtzmann was filming everything – including, to Erin’s dismay, her outfit and her shoes, asking her to tell the story about the world’s tiniest bowtie, unperturbed by Erin’s somewhat curt information that it’d come with the shirt.

“Stop filming me”, she then hissed, after the blonde had asked her how it was to walk around in these shoes all day; the engineer let out what Erin could only describe as a cackle, then Abby called out to her and she bounded over to where the researcher was standing, studying the whirring tool in her hand.

A PKE meter, she had claimed, but Erin doubted it worked, refrained from saying so out loud though while Abby tried the door to the basement, found it locked and moved on, the redhead trailing along behind them, still not sure why she was there in the first place.

And she doubted that it had been a wise decision to go there with them when she stepped in some sort of green, slimy blob, grimacing as she nearly slipped, bending over to take a closer look, mumbling “Good gag” to herself as she touched the stuff, then wiped her hand on a tissue.

Behind her, the door Abby had tried to unsuccessfully open moments before swung open, complete with ominous creaking sound.

“Is everything a joke to you guys?” she said accusingly as she caught up to the other two, making them turn and look at her, both looking confused, and prompting her to elaborate, even though she suspected they both knew perfectly well what she was talking about.

“That stuff on the floor?” she said, gesturing back at the green goo, “opening the basement door? Trying to freak me out?”

“I did not open the basement door”, Abby defended herself, sounding so incredulous that Erin wanted to believe her, “Holtz, did you open… the basement door’s open.”

“I did not open that”, Holtzmann said empathically, and before Erin could accuse of them lying – or try to _listen_ and find out that way if they were telling the truth – a strange blue light started to shine from the basement behind the open door, and she took a step back, ending up closer to the other two, while Abby grabbed the camera from Holtzmann, aiming it at the doorway just in time to capture the apparition floating out of it and towards them.

“Oh my God”, Erin breathed, eyes wide, “this… this can’t be happening…”

“Oh, it’s happening alright”, Holtzmann commented behind her, her words followed by a loud crunch; Erin flinched, startled, then gave her a brief glare, disbelief taking over when she saw that the younger woman was actually munching down on some Pringles.

“How can you be eating right now”, she demanded, earning a shrug, neither of them looking away from the ghost though.

“You try saying no to these salty parabolas”, the engineer told her, then Abby shushed them both, hand shaking when she pointed out the ghost floating closer to them.

It was Gertrude Aldridge, they all could easily tell from her portrait; as she got closer, their ears popped and the hair at the back of their neck rose, Abby letting out a shaky breath as the ghost kept floating closer, smiling at them.

“I… I’ll try to talk to her”, Erin said, hand shaking when she raised it in what she hoped would signal peace and acceptance; Abby mumbled “be careful”, and she nodded, never taking her eyes off the ghost as she took one step to meet her halfway.

“He-hello”, she said, the ghost focusing on her, her smile widening a bit as if in response to what Erin was saying, “I’m Erin Gilbert, Doctor of particle physics at…”

She knew how to shield her mind from the thoughts of the people around her, had been forced to learn this fairly quickly once her power had manifested; and on regular days, she was good at it, having it under control along with her emotions, only slipping up every now and then when she experienced strong feelings.

Erin was good at keeping people’s thoughts out of her mind, but she never had considered that the thoughts of a ghost might work differently, and she had a second to realize what a mistake she had made when the ghost’s face contorted into a horrible grimace, slime spewing from the unnaturally large mouth and raining down on her, but she didn’t even notice, the hateful echoing voice of the apparition slamming right into the centre of her brain and whitening out her world.

_Kill them all kill them all slit their throats drink their blood KILL THEM ALL SLIT THEIR THROATS DRINK THEIR BLOOD KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM—_

Erin couldn’t hear herself scream as she pressed her hands to her ears, in a useless attempt to block out the voice; she knew it wouldn’t help, she _knew_ , but she had to do something, and the assault wouldn’t let her adjust to the ghost’s thoughts, and it hurt, it felt as if her brain was being torn apart from within.

Then the assault stopped as sudden as it had begun, and the slime stopped, too; she heard the ghost cackle, and almost expected another onslaught of hateful thoughts, but apparently, the ghost had enough, whooshing past her and out the window, vanishing into the day outside.

“Erin!” she heard Abby call out, but she sounded muffled, as if Erin’s ears had been stuffed with cotton wool now, “oh my God! I had no idea this… Holtz? Can you…?”

“Yeppers”, Holtzmann’s voice came next, followed by the engineer moving to Erin’s side; she tried to lift her head, blink the tears out of her eyes, but she felt nauseous and moving only made it worse, a low moan of pain escaping her while Holtzmann knelt down next to her.

“Hey”, the blonde said in a low voice, “it’s gonna be okay. I’m going to lift you up, alright? Don’t be alarmed, it’s just me, you’re safe and you’ll be fine.”

If Erin hadn’t felt as if someone had stabbed her brain with glowing knives, she might have wondered how Holtzmann, who appeared rather slim and small, wanted to pick her up; as it was though, she could only let out a vaguely agreeing groan, and moments later, one of Holtzmann’s arms went beneath her knees and the other behind her back, and the blonde lifted her up, holding her so that her head came to rest on her shoulder instead of dangling down uncomfortably.

“Uber’s on the way”, Abby said, wringing her hands, the camera and PKE meter forgotten, “Erin, I’m so sorry, I had no idea this would happen!”

Erin could only let out another groan, then, as Holtzmann started carrying her towards the front door, the world went dark around her, the last thing she heard before she fell unconscious being Abby crying out her name once more.

* * *

When Erin woke up again, her head was still pounding, but nowhere near as bad as it had been right after the ghost’s mental onslaught; for a moment, she thought that she was in a hospital, then realized that she laid on a couch, not in a bed, and that sounds of metal on metal could be heard from somewhere to her right.

_The lab,_ she realized, pulling her shield up without even fully realizing that she was doing it; she slowly and carefully turned her head, not wanting to make the pain worse – it had been years, decades even, since she’d had a headache from an overload of other people’s thoughts, but she remembered them all too well, and didn’t want to make it worse again.

It took her much longer than it would have on a regular day, but finally, she had turned her head far enough to be able to see the source of the noise; it turned out, unsurprisingly, to be Holtzmann, the engineer sitting at a workbench a few feet away, and Erin squinted at her, because apparently, the tool she was using was some weird three-bladed knife, the physicist deciding that her eyes had played a trick on her when she, after briefly closing them, saw that the engineer was holding a simple screwdriver.

“Um”, she started, only to hear how hoarse and weak her voice sounded; she fell silent and cleared her throat, but apparently, Holtzmann had heard her, anyway, since she put her tool down and turned on the chair to look at her, smiling slightly as their eyes met.

“Welcome back”, she said, getting up and walking over to the couch, Erin belatedly realizing that the slime had been cleaned from her face and hair, at least most of it, “how are ya feeling?”

“Better than expected, but my head still hurts”, Erin mumbled, not sure if she could dare to sit up; apparently though, Holtzmann had thought ahead for this possibility, having a glass of cool water with a straw in it readied, carefully lifting her head a bit – after telling her to yelp in case it would hurt or be uncomfortable – and guiding the straw to her mouth.

“Thank you”, Erin said once she had gulped down half the glass, prompting Holtzmann to gently lower her head back onto the pillow, “are we in the lab…?”

“Yup”, Holtzmann confirmed, “back at Higgins. We don’t have your home address and Abby wanted me to keep an eye on you, she said this has happened before…?”

“It has”, Erin whispered, mortified that Holtzmann had seen her like this – the engineer certainly had known about her abilities, what with how Abby had trumpeted them out at this lab, and after how she had used her skills to slam the door shut, but it still was embarrassing, “not since college and not with a ghost but… It has happened before.”

Before she could stop herself, she burst into tears; clearly, Holtzmann hadn’t expected this at all, since she looked alarmed, then worried, nervously rubbing between the knuckles of one hand with the other as she said “Erin, Erin no it’s okay”, in an attempt to calm her down.

“I’m sorry”, Erin brought out between sobs, while Holtzmann moved one hand to rub her arm somewhat awkwardly, “it’s just… Jesus, I always made sure nobody ever noticed I’m one of those… _freaks_ and now this happened, and it got all recorded, too…”

“Nobody is gonna see that video”, Holtzmann told her after a moment of pause, still rubbing her arm, “not after what happened. Abby’s truly sorry, she would have hung around, but she had stuff to do so… She should be back soon though.”

Erin wiped at her eyes, not sure what to respond; Holtzmann gave her a slight smile and patted her arm, then pulled her hand back and straightened up again, asking her if she wanted some more water.

“No thank you”, the physicist mumbled, daring to sit up, “I should get home, tell Abby my thanks…”

She came to her feet, Holtzmann looking concerned, but not trying to stop her; she just nodded, and after giving her a weak smile, Erin left, not looking back, even though she could feel Holtzmann’s eyes on her back.

Just as she stepped out of the door, a single image flashed through her mind, of herself on the couch, looking oddly peaceful; and only when she got into the cab she’d called outside, she realized that it had come from Holtzmann’s mind.

It made her wonder why she had picked that up… and it made her wonder why it had been accompanied by a feeling of warmth and longing.


	3. Chapter 3

In the next morning, her headache was gone, but apparently, the encounter with the ghost had somewhat weakened Erin’s abilities to keep the thoughts of others at bay; she picked up snippets here and there on her way to work, fragments of sentences and random images, rubbing at her temples by the time she arrived at Columbia, hoping that she’d regain control over this soon.

The last thing she needed, after all, was ending up bombarded by the thoughts of her students and colleagues; what had happened the previous day had been bad enough, and she really didn’t need a repeat of this, especially not in the teacher’s lounge or in the lecture hall.

Not wanting to run into Phil in her current vulnerable state, Erin moved straight to her office instead, telling herself she could do one morning without coffee – and it probably would be better for her head, too –, and that she had to prepare her lecture anyway, tapping her fingers impatiently as she waited for her computer to finish booting.

Someone walked past outside, and she got a snippet of music from them, frowning – it was some annoying earworm of a song, and she pitied the person who had it stuck in their head; and just when her computer finally was ready to use, Filmore came strolling into her office, greeting her with his usual clipped and somewhat cold tone.

“So, Dr Gilbert”, he then said, while Erin wondered what he might want – she had missed her lecture the previous day, but she knew that it happened to others, too, without having the dean visit them at their office, “your tenure case is up for review next week. I imagine you’re looking forward to it.”

_If it was up to me, you’d be in Dr Hudson’s kitchen and making him sandwiches instead of sitting here and taking a man’s place._

“Excuse me?” Erin said before she could stop herself, unable to hold back after what had happened and after hearing him think this about her, anger flaring up bright when she thought back to all the times he had pretended to at least respect her – because certainly, she realized with her anger growing, this wasn’t the first time he thought such things about her, “how dare you! And just for your information, Dr Hudson and I broke up, you… you cretin!”

“How do you…!” Filmore gasped, before his eyes went wide – and then narrowed, his voice even colder when he continued. “Ah. You’re one of _them_ , then. Well. I imagine your tenure review will have to be cancelled. You’re fired.”

“I quit”, Erin spat, coming to her feet, glaring at him, clearly surprising him – and she did not need to read his mind to be able to tell, the emotion clear on his face –, “good luck with finding a _man_ as good at this as I am. You jerk.”

She gave him another glare, and again, he was the first to look away; he cleared his throat and told her that someone would bring a box for her stuff before she’d be escorted off campus, then turned and left without another word, Erin sinking down into her chair again and resting her head in her hands, feeling sick when she realized what she just had done.

* * *

“I got fired”, Erin announced as she practically barged into the lab, making both Holtzmann and Abby jump where they had been sitting at a laptop and reviewing the footage from the previous day, “or I quit, I’m not sure. All my stuff is in my car now and I have no job.”

“What happened?” Abby asked, stunned; Erin sighed, and shrugged, then sat down on the nearest chair, giving them a miserable look, shrugging once more before she replied.

“Apparently”, she told them, figuring she might as well be honest with them since they both knew about her mutation, “whatever happened yesterday… weakened my guard, for lack of a better word. And, well, I picked up on some not so nice commentary from my boss, called him a cretin and a jerk and left.”

“Cretin, nice”, Holtzmann commented with a snort, earning a raised eyebrow from the physicist; she cleared her throat and mumbled “Sorry”, but before Erin could tell her it was okay, she heard a startled “What?!” from the door and spun on her chair, shocked – after all, Phil’s voice was the last she had expected to hear.

“Phil!” she said in surprise, “what are you doing here?!”

“I followed you”, he said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world, “you ignored me when you walked out with your… box! You insulted Filmore and got fired?! Erin! What is going on? At first you break up with me for no reason and then you do this?! Who are you?”

“I had my reasons”, Erin coldly replied, still not willing to tell him about her secret, “and you have no right to sneak after me! Are you stalking me now, is that it?”

“That your ex-boyfriend then?” Abby wanted to know, eying him with distaste, “we can throw him out Erin, just say the word.”

“Oh yes, we can”, Holtzmann added, and if Erin hadn’t known better, she could have sworn that there was a distinct growl in her voice.

“Yes, my ex”, she confirmed, turning to look at them, noticing how tense Holtzmann appeared as she had gotten up from her chair, almost as if she would start twitching any moment, “and I think he was just leaving. Weren’t you, Phil.”

“I will not be sent away like a naughty child”, he protested, taking a swift step closer to her, “we need to talk about this like adults, Erin!”

He reached out and grabbed her arm, and a lot of things happened at once.

She heard Abby say “Holtz, no!”, then a flash of blonde shot past her; and then, Phil was practically barrelled away as Holtzmann slammed into him and drove him backwards, with strength he certainly hadn’t expected.

What he probably had expected even less was to end up slammed against the wall – and Holtzmann to bring her fist up, an audible scraping noise echoing through the lab as knife-like claws shot out from between her knuckles, pressing coldly against the sides of his throat, his eyes widening when a third one slid out much slower between the other two, until the tip touched his Adam’s apple.

“Oh”, Erin faintly brought out, remembering the weird three bladed tool she had seen the previous night and realizing it hadn’t been a tool at all – and followed by the realization that, just like Abby and herself, Holtzmann was a mutant, the physicist nearly slapping her own forehead as she thought back to the very first thing Holtzmann had said to her.

_You smell like coconut._ As if she had been close enough to Holtzmann for the blonde to smell anything from her.

“Holtzmann”, Abby said in a careful, kind tone as she slowly approached the two, “let go of him, okay? He was just about to leave. Isn’t that right, Phil?”

“Yes”, he brought out, not daring to move a muscle – even though at least one of his muscles apparently lost all function, since the stench of his urine filled the lab, along with a soft splattering noise, “I’m leaving. Leaving now. Please let me go.”

“Go”, Holtzmann growled at him, Erin flinching when the claws shot back into her forearm with another shockingly loud noise; and immediately, Phil turned and fled, soiled pants and all, the three women standing in silence once the door had fallen shut behind him.

“Um”, Erin brought out, simultaneously feeling oddly warm and a bit frightened by what she just had witnessed, “thank you. I don’t think he would have done anything to hurt me but… Thanks.”

“No problem”, Holtzmann gave back, rubbing the skin between her knuckles again, and Erin realized that, even though she should be bleeding all over the place, there wasn’t even a drop of blood, and no sign of a wound, “we freaks gotta stick together, right?”

Erin almost apologized then, for what she had said the previous day – and then saw the way Holtzmann’s eyes twinkled, and found herself smiling and nodding, Abby looking a bit confused, but deciding not to question this, Phil and his unexpected and unwanted visit quickly forgotten as the researcher brought up the ghost they had seen the previous day again.

“Apart from when she nearly gave Erin an aneurysm, it was amazing, wasn’t it”, she gushed, making Erin smile slightly, their disagreement about the book forgotten – not that it mattered much anymore, she figured, with her having quit her job at Columbia, “but it’s too bad she rushed away like that. Imagine if we had managed to, I don’t know, capture her or something!”

“Capture her”, Erin repeated, frowning to herself as the gears in her mind started to turn, “you think we could do that?”

“Please”, Abby replied, smiling, “Holtzmann’s not only a mutant with claws and a temper” – at this, Holtzmann threw in “Hey!”, earning a shrug from the elder woman, “she’s also a brilliant engineer. With our knowledge about ghosts, you skill in particle physics and her engineering, we can build anything.”

She was getting enthusiastic, Erin could tell, and her enthusiasm was contagious; and so, when Abby suggested that they should all go to the dean and tell him about their encounter and ask to bring Erin on board, she was more than happy to nod along, especially when Abby reassured her that the dean would be happy to have her on board.

As it turned out, the dean was not happy to have her on board – was in fact, not even happy to have Abby and Holtzmann on board, and he either didn’t know about Holtzmann’s temper or didn’t care, because he fired them on the spot, not caring the slightest when all three women glared at him.

They paid him back by stealing a whole load of equipment, leaving Erin unsure where they would take it – until Holtzmann pointed out she had a storage unit downtown, because of course she did; and as they pushed the trolleys with stolen stuff down the sidewalk, she found herself excited and smiling, looking forward to working with the two, suddenly just sure that they would manage to catch a ghost and prove everyone who ever had called her crazy wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene which inspired what Holtzmann did to Phil - just imagine his silly face there, hehe XD  
> http://imgur.com/a/6hbjN


	4. Chapter 4

The first option the real estate agent showed them would have been perfect – an unused firehouse which would have had more than enough room for all their things and for Holtzmann to go crazy lab-wise, but there was no way they could afford it, and so, they ended up above the Chinese restaurant where Abby always ordered her lunch.

A lunch which still took an hour to be delivered, Erin heard as she began to unpack her things, smiling to herself as Abby berated the delivery boy; then, she got distracted, namely by one of her boxes refusing to open, the duct tape she had used to tape it shut doing a much better job than anticipated.

“Hey Holtz”, she said, turning to look at the engineer, who was busy with unpacking her own things, Erin a bit disconcerted at how she tossed her tools onto the workbench, “do you have a knife I could borrow? This duct tape is annoying.”

Holtzmann raised an eyebrow and wordlessly walked over to where Erin was standing; and moments later, the physicist felt like face-palming when the engineer popped one of her claws out and effortlessly slid through the tape.

“…thank you”, she said, blushing a bit, “um, would you mind doing the others too? If it’s not too much of a hassle? I don’t want to give you the feeling I’m using you?”

“Please”, Holtzmann replied with a smirk, “Abby asks me to cut stuff for her all the time. Might as well make use of these babies, I always say.”

She winked at Erin, who blushed again in reply, and moved on to cut the tape on the rest of the boxes; it took her less than a minute, Erin thanking her with a bright smile when she was done and moved back to her workbench.

Apparently, her guarding skills were still weakened, since she picked up another flash of thought from the engineer while she got back to work; it was no image of her this time, but a snippet of an 80’s song, and Erin was dismayed when it got stuck in her head, looping endlessly.

“Snack?” Holtzmann distracted her from that after a while, and she glanced over, only to recoil as the blonde had stuck several pieces of various fruit onto the claws of her left hand and now held them out to her, the sharp tips disconcertingly close to her face.

“Um, thank you?” Erin gave back, raising an eyebrow, exceedingly careful as she chose a slice of apple, “you do that often?”

“Only for people I like”, Holtzmann said with a wink, and Erin found herself blushing again; the blonde winked at her again, then sauntered back to her workbench, humming the song she’d somewhat infected Erin with under her breath.

“Yeah, thanks for that, by the way”, she decided that not only Holtzmann could show off her mutation, “not that you think I’m spying on your mind, but I did pick up a bit of that song, and now it’s stuck in my head, too!”

“It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the thrill of the fight”, Holtzmann sang as an answer, making Erin roll her eyes – before the engineer gave her a toothy grin, then leaned closer, a twinkle in her eyes when she spoke on in her regular voice. “Careful with the mind reading there though, Gilbert. You might pick up things which might… have a certain effect on you.”

Back at Columbia, Erin might have blushed and stuttered at a woman saying something like that to her; now though, as she no longer had her job and was working with people who knew her secret and couldn’t care less, she found it easier to accept her other secret, as well – she still blushed, but managed a somewhat coy smile, clearly surprising Holtzmann when she reached out and briefly touched her bare forearm, the engineer having rolled up the sleeves of her coat to the elbows.

“Is that so”, she wanted to know, smiling at the younger woman, “like what? You’re not having dirty thoughts about me, are you, Dr Holtzmann?”

Holtzmann just opened her mouth to reply, but sadly, before she could say something, a male voice interrupted them with an uncertain “Hello?”; they both turned to look, finding themselves looking at a tall blonde man with quite the buff build, who raised a hand and gave a little wave.

“Hi”, he said, Erin having to admit he looked quite attractive, and reaching out without thinking, forced to hold back a frown when all she got from him was an image of a happy bunny and crickets chirping, “I’m Kevin? I called about the receptionist job?”

“Oh”, Erin let out, “I think you spoke to Abby, wait let me get her—”

As if she had heard her, Abby appeared out of thin air next to her, holding a bunch of flyers; she realized too late that Kevin was there, and gave him an alarmed look, but apparently, he either was used to mutants or hadn’t noticed what just had happened, smiling at her as if she hadn’t just teleported into the room.

“He says he called”, Erin told her, then lowered her voice, “all that’s in his head is a bunny and chirping crickets. We don’t have any other applicants, do we?”

“Not so far”, Abby sighed, not commenting on how liberally Erin apparently used her power now, after having hidden and suppressed it for years, “let’s just talk to him and see how it goes?”

Erin sighed and nodded, already having a feeling where this talk would go; and as it turned out, she had been right, the man was dumb as a rock, but they knew they needed someone to man the phone, and to carry all their heavy equipment around, and so, he got the job anyway.

When he went to get his suitcases, the three scientists were surprised to find a woman sitting at the door, reading a magazine, looking up though when Abby called out to her.

“Ma’am, excuse me”, Abby said once she had her attention, “if you’re waiting for take-out, you should really wait downstairs.”

“Oh I saw the magazine and thought this is your waiting room”, the lady replied, coming to her feet and letting said magazine drop to the floor, “did you know that before this was a restaurant, it was also New York’s first Chinese opium den? Fascinating, isn’t it?”

The three blinked at her, not sure where she was going with this; the woman cleared her throat, then spoke on, sounding as if she wasn’t quite sure about what she was saying. “Um. Also, I got chased by a ghost?”

“What”, Abby flatly replied, earning a shrug from the woman while she moved closer to them.

“I’m Patty Tolan, I work for the MTA”, she let them know, “and there was this guy, going into the tunnel, onto the tracks? After he spouted a bunch of creepy nonsense at me, that is. I followed him, because people are not supposed to walk around there, and couldn’t find him anymore. Instead, the creepy dead dude found me and chased me down the tunnel.”

“…I’ll get the gear”, Holtzmann said, earning a brief nod from Abby – while Erin realized that Kevin certainly wouldn’t be needed to lug it around, what with Holtzmann and her above average strength, something she suspected was just another part of her mutation, then shrugged those thoughts off as they got moving, feeling excited and happy as she rushed downstairs with Abby, ready to capture a ghost and prove that she wasn’t crazy or making all of it up.

* * *

Only when they were in the tunnels, Erin remembered what had happened the last time she had encountered a ghost, and she briefly felt scared, then told herself she could do this – she knew what to expect now, after all, and would be prepared this time.

“Okay, keep in mind”, Holtzmann was saying as she pushed the trolley with the gear along behind them, “this gear is untested and highly unstable.”

Patty looked worried at that, but made no comment, leading them farther into the tunnel instead; and just when Erin began to doubt that they were on the right track – no pun intended – a glob of slime fell from the ceiling and landed on her shoulder, a dismayed “Come on!” escaping her as she picked at it.

“Man, I should have given y’all some coveralls”, Patty realized a bit belatedly, “it’s really not clean down here.”

“Yeah, especially that urine smell is quite… persistent”, Abby commented, and as if to underline her words, Holtzmann sneezed; a closer look revealed that her eyes were watering to Erin, and she remembered the other woman’s fine nose, moving a bit closer to her, keeping her voice low when she asked her if she was okay.

“Fine”, Holtzmann mumbled, giving a brief, somewhat grateful look before she lifted her glass to wipe at her eyes, “just, bleh, that smell. I have a sensitive nose, you know.”

“Oh, I know”, Erin gave back, smiling at her; after a moment, Holtzmann returned the smile, and just when she let her glasses drop back down onto the bridge of her nose, her ears popped, the way Erin flinched next to her telling her that the same had happened to her.

“Hey”, she said, remembering all too well what the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge had done to the physicist, “you’re gonna be okay.”

Bravely, Erin nodded, struggling to remember how it had felt when Gertrude had assaulted her mind, and to bring up a shield against it, before the ghost would even appear; and a few seconds later, it did just that, the air crackling as the apparition floated closer, looking like a prisoner from the 1930s, complete with striped suit and the cap from the electric chair still on his head.

_Snikt!_

Erin jumped at the noise from her right, not really surprised to see that Holtzmann had popped her claws out next to her, and from both hands this time; she hissed “Holtz!”, not sure if Patty had noticed, the tall woman having her gaze fixed on the ghost, “those won’t help against a ghost!”

“Oh”, Holtzmann let out, sounding so surprised that, had the circumstances be different, it would have been comical, “right.”

The claws retraced with another audible sound, but apparently, Patty hadn’t noticed that time, either; Abby made sure to keep her distracted by asking her for some illumination on the subject, and Patty gladly did just that, even though all four women felt somewhat unsettled when they got a closer look at the ghost.

“That is… more and more unsettling”, Erin brought out, frantic as she waited for the ghost’s thoughts to hit; and she felt them, for a second, quickly adjusting her guard, glad when it worked out just fine, only to get nervous again when Holtzmann pushed a unexpectedly large and heavy gun-like object into her hands.

“That is gonna fire a proton stream at that ghost”, she explained as she hurried back to the gear, “keep in mind it’s in the early stages, but when I say go, you do just that, okay Erin?”

“Why am I operating the untested nuclear laser?!” Erin wanted to know, prompting Holtzmann to tell her “you have the longest arms”; she let out an “Oh” in response, only to flinch when the engineer stepped even closer to her and snapped what she could refer to as a collar around her neck.

“Just a bit of grounding”, Holtzmann told her, keeping one hand on her shoulder as she went on, “so you don’t die immediately. Do you know your iron level?”

“Nuh-uh”, Erin brought out, a little whimper following that sound when Holtzmann patted her shoulder and said “it’s fine”; she hurried back to the machinery on the trolley, typing for a few seconds on the keyboard built into it before she said “And fire!”, Erin’s heartrate spiking when she pushed down on the trigger button.

The proton stream which shot out of the barrel was glowing a bright orange, but sort of slumped down towards the ground after just a foot or two, Abby briefly stopping focusing on recording the encounter so she could give the engineer a look.

“Oh, womp womp”, Holtzmann let out, prompting Abby to ask if they could get more power; Holtzmann typed again, then cried “Fire!”, and this time, the stream was long enough, and wrapped around the ghost, who reacted by growling in dismay and perhaps even pain.

Trying to keep her aim steady, Erin went wide-eyed when she heard the distinct horn of a subway train up ahead; Patty was yelling at them to hurry, and the ghost lunged forward in the same moment, causing her to lose her footing, a cry escaping her as she fell over, but she never let go of the proton gun.

“That’s the express train!” Patty yelled behind her, “and it’s not stopping!”

“We gotta get her back to the platform, come on!” Abby cried in response, then they both were by her side and grabbed her beneath the armpits; struggling to help, Erin tried to push herself along with her feet, her high heels not helping, but at least the ghost was still caught in the stream, and was dragged along with her, growling and snarling as it lashed out at her again and again, thankfully not landing any hits.

Erin wasn’t quite sure if the ghost could actually hurt her, but she certainly didn’t want to find out the hard way.

Everything happened very fast then, the train coming, Holtzmann calling out “Oh shit, the collar!” behind her; she heard the by now almost familiar _snikt_ again as Holtzmann used her claws to sever the cord connecting the collar to the trolley, just a second before the train hit said trolley – and then it hit the ghost, Patty ducking down behind Erin as slime rained down on them.

“Well”, she said once the rain of goo had stopped, Erin once more having taken the brunt of it, “guess he’s goin’ to Queens. He’s gonna be the third scariest thing on that train.”

“Oh my God, did you see that”, Abby cheered while Holtzmann was laughing and clapping her hands in delight, “oh, wait, Erin honey, you can’t see anything.”

She wiped the slime out of Erin’s eyes, who grumbled at having ended up covered in the stuff again; then she took one look at Holtzmann though, at the engineer’s bright smile and shining eyes, and all her dismay about the goo was forgotten at once.

“We need more juice, we need to be more mobile”, Holtzmann was saying, still grinning, “I know what to do.”

Erin knew she should be terrified of what their crazy scientist would come up with next, but all she could feel was joy and enthusiasm.


	5. Chapter 5

“Everyone thinks this video is fake!” Erin said, offended, glaring at the comment section of the video they had uploaded; the comments were all negative, about how it was the lamest fake ever, how they were using bogus equipment – that one made Holtzmann look up from the wires she was stripping – and how the ghost looked like some cheap video game extra.

“Don’t listen to what these people write in the middle of the night on the internet”, Abby advised, earning an unhappy look from her friend, “we know what we saw, and our equipment worked! Sooner or later, we’ll have a ghost here in this lab to study!”

“And it didn’t try to fry your brain this time”, Holtzmann added, smirking at the redhead, “that’s a plus, too, no?”

“Indeed”, Erin replied with a roll of her eyes, moving on to the device Patty had pointed out to them in the subway, after the ghost had been taken away by the train, deciding to forget about the comments for now like Abby had suggested.

“Here’s your coffee, Abby”, Kevin interrupted just as Erin picked one part of the strange machine they had found up and examined it; Abby asked if he had remembered the sugar, and apparently, he wasn’t sure, since he took a sip of the cup – only to spit the coffee right back in it with an “Eurch” noise and the information that he hated coffee, but that the sugar was in it.

“Jesus”, Erin mumbled while Holtzmann was quietly chuckling to herself; with a sigh, Abby put the coffee cup aside, taking a closer look at the device as well afterwards.

“It looks like it was part of a miniature cyclotron”, Erin said, prompting Holtzmann to move over to them and poke at some of the bits and pieces with one claw, the physicist by now not even jumping anymore at the noise it made as it slid out, the engineer shaking her head to herself before she spoke up. “And they used a chromium alloy for the hull. Ha! I would have used aluminium, but I’m crazy.”

“You can tell that from poking it with your claw?” Erin wanted to know, fascinated, only to roll her eyes at Holtzmann’s answer to her question. “Nah. I just like poking things with them. Gotta make use of them, no?”

“You gonna poke someone’s eye out one day”, a familiar voice came from one of the booths behind them, and they all jumped; Holtzmann hurriedly retracted the claw, even though she knew it was too late already, a bit relieved that at least, Patty didn’t look all too fazed as she sat in the booth, an open laptop in front of her, looking at them.

“Um, hello”, Erin was the first to snap out of her shock, moving a step to the right to block Patty’s view on Holtzmann, even though she too knew it was too late, “um, can we help you?”

“Oh, you have a visitor”, Kevin chose that moment to chime in, pointing Patty out to them, “in the booth, um, booth one, with the earrings.”

“Yes, Kevin, we can see her”, Erin let him know; Patty beamed at her, then said “I’m joinin’ the club”, earning confused looks from the three women.

“It’s more of a research group”, the physicist told her, “we’re scientists investigating the paranormal.”

“I know that”, Patty told her, snapping her laptop shut and coming to her feet, “and you certainly know about the science, but I know New York. And I come with benefits! I can get us a car so you don’t have to roll your machines around on a trolley.”

“Oh, guys, a car would be awesome”, Holtzmann said, eying the elder woman curiously as she wondered why Patty was reacting so blasé about what she had seen; usually, people who had no idea what she was tended to freak out when the long blades popped out of her hands, but Patty acted as if she saw things like that every day.

“Fine”, Abby decided, smiling at Patty, “you’re in. We can need all the help we can get, especially a vehicle and another member on the team, four people are gonna work better than three.”

Patty beamed at them, letting them know she’d get the car from her uncle as fast as possible; Abby stepped forward to shake hands, startled though when Patty practically recoiled, apologetic as she raised her hands, keeping them out of reach from the smaller woman.

“That is a bad idea”, she told the researcher, earning another questioning look, “you can teleport, Erin over there can read minds and – Holtzmann was your name, right? – well, Holtzmann’s got those nifty knives in her hands, and I can… borrow those powers. And use them, or transfer them, when I touch you guys skin to skin. It’s not pleasant, so I don’t shake hands.”

“Oh”, Abby let out, while Erin frowned – neither Abby, nor she had displayed their powers during the encounter in the subway, and so, she gave the other woman a curious look, making her look at her when she spoke up. “How do you know which powers we have? You saw Holtzmann’s, but Abby and me?”

“Oh I can sense other’s powers, it’s part of mine”, Patty told her, smiling, “you’ll probably be happy to hear that your receptionist is a regular human, who knows what he would do with any sort of power.”

“That is indeed calming”, Erin replied, fascinated – she’d never heard of anyone with a power like Patty’s, but then, she reasoned, she didn’t know any other people who were like her than those in the room with her right now, always having kept her mutation a secret from everybody and never having gotten close enough to anyone to reveal a possible power to her.

“Okay, no skin to skin touch then, got it”, Abby said, clapping the taller woman on the shoulder instead, “welcome to the team, Patty.”

“Welcome”, Erin and Holtzmann echoed, making Patty beam at them; since they couldn’t shake hands with her, more shoulder clapping happened, then she let them know that she’d go talk to her uncle about the car.

“I’ll be back soon”, she promised them, “don’t do any fun things without Patty, you hear!”

“We won’t”, Holtzmann reassured her, amused; Patty gave her another bright smile, then hurried off to get them a vehicle while the other three focused on the device from the subway again, eager to learn more about it and perhaps figure out enough to stop whatever was going on before things could escalate to a much worse level.

* * *

It took barely an hour for Patty to come back, and when she did, she proudly presented a hearse to the three women; and while Erin and Abby were a bit put off by this, Holtzmann had a lot of fun with it, laughing and clapping her hands like she had in the subway, her joy about the choice of car making Erin smile despite the fact that it was a hearse.

“You didn’t disclose that the vehicle in question was gonna be a hearse”, Abby pointed out, Patty shrugging in response and pointing out that it was a Cadillac, clearly not perturbed by the thought of going ghost-hunting in a hearse.

“Let’s hope there’s no body in the back”, Erin said, only half jokingly; Holtzmann laughed at that, and Abby smirked at her, and even though it was just a small thing, it made her feel warm and accepted, a smile curling her lips for a second – until Patty replied, the physicist’s eyes going wide at her words.

“I don’t know”, she said, sounding all too casual, and shrugging at Abby’s cry of “You didn’t check?!”, “I checked to make sure we have gas, that seemed more important. Let Holtzmann check! She likes that kind of stuff.”

Apparently, Erin thought, Patty’s power not only included sensing someone’s power, but  vague information about their character, as well, because while she was somewhat surprised at Patty saying this about a woman she barely knew, Holtzmann snickered and nodded at once.

“I can think of seven good uses for a cadaver _today_ ”, she then said, immediately earning a strict look from Patty while Abby just snickered to herself.

“No, Dr Frankenstein”, Patty then scolded, “if there is a body, we gotta turn it in.”

“Alriiiiight”, Holtzmann sighed, prompting Erin to put a hand on her shoulder in sympathy; she craned her neck to grin at her, Erin feeling a jolt which went all the way up and down her spine as their eyes met, Patty raising an eyebrow at the interaction, but not commenting on it.

“Anyway”, Abby said, gaining the attention of all three women, “thanks Patty, can you park it in the garage and then we order dinner?”

Patty nodded at once, hopping back into the hearse; they waited for her to safely move the vehicle into the garage, then all four of them moved back into their lab upstairs, ordering food before Abby showed Patty around the lab, explaining who worked were and what exactly each of them was doing.

While the researcher did that, Holtzmann was taking another look at the device they had found at the subway; she almost had figured out how exactly it had been put together, and knew that it would make their work much easier once she knew for sure, even though she got quite distracted when the distinct smell of coconut hit her nostrils.

She didn’t need to turn her head to know it was Erin who had moved to stand next to her, still did so though, the physicist’s eyes meeting hers yet again, the eye contact making her feel quite warm and tingly inside.

“Any success?” Erin asked, smiling when Holtzmann nodded; she quickly filled Erin in on her progress, and, eager to impress her some more, continued with information about how far she’d gotten on the proton packs, proud when she let Erin know that after they’d eaten, they could do the first test run.

“No worries”, she added, “the prototype is much more stable than the equipment we used in the subway.”

“I know”, Erin smiled, briefly reaching out and touching her arm, unaware of the tingle she sent up and down her spine with the brief contact, “I don’t think for a moment you’d let us test anything if you though it wasn’t safe.”

“I’d only test unsafe stuff myself”, Holtzmann solemnly replied, Erin simultaneously rolling her eyes and letting out a little giggle; the engineer smiled at her, and when their gazes met yet again, a thought which wasn’t hers flashed through Erin’s mind, her cheeks flushing brightly.

_Man, I’d really like to kiss her right now._

Her heart skipped a beat, and her gaze dropped to Holtzmann’s lips, just for a second, but long enough for the blonde to notice; before Erin could do more than that though, Abby called out “Food’s here!”, and the moment was ruined, the physicist clearing her throat while Holtzmann looked somewhat dismayed by the bad timing.

“Well”, Erin said with a small, nervous laugh, “we better get food then, right? Wouldn’t want it to get cold. We have no one around with fire powers who might heat it up for us…”

She let out another nervous laugh, and Holtzmann made herself smile and nod; her smile vanished though the moment Erin turned her back on her to join Abby and Patty, and she wondered if she had imagined the longing in the physicist’s eyes or if it really had been there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> XD Check out my questionable photoshop skills which I used to give Holtzy some claws, hehe :D http://dreamshapers-universe.tumblr.com/post/158287145139/snikt-see-my-questionable-photoshop-skills-xd


	6. Chapter 6

“So”, Patty said once they had gotten done eating, “how did y’all get into ghost hunting? You seen one before the subway incident?”

“I did”, Erin told her, while Abby started clearing plates and the empty boxes from the table, giving her an encouraging smile as she knew what would come next, “um… when I was eight. The mean old lady next door had died and the night after the funeral, she appeared at the foot of my bed.”

“What”, Patty said, startled, not wanting to imagine how frightful this must have been for a child the age Erin had been back then; the physicist nodded, gaze dropping down to the napkin she had started to fiddle with as she went on.

“Yeah, and she did that every night, for a year”, she continued, feeling both Patty and Holtzmann’s eyes on her, not looking up though, and making sure her guard was up, not needing to know what they were thinking in this very moment – she didn’t doubt that they believed her, not truly, but still, she figured it was better to be safe than sorry, “and… my parents didn’t believe me. Still don’t, I think. I had to go to therapy for years, the kids at school found out and would laugh at me, call me Ghost Girl… Then Abby transferred to my school, and she was the only person who believed me.”

“I believe you, too”, Patty said empathically, earning a weak smile from the physicist; Holtzmann took a moment to drink noisily through her straw, then smirked around it, winking at the redhead as she spoke up. “We ever run into one of the jerks bullying you, you tell me and I’ll do what I did to your jerky ex.”

“Holtzmann, no”, Erin replied with a small laugh, “please don’t. I appreciate the offer, but seriously.”

“What didcha do?” Patty wanted to know, looking at the engineer curiously, Holtzmann shrugging in reply, putting on a perfectly innocent face before she replied. “Nothing much. I didn’t even cut him.”

“She pinned him to the wall”, Erin filled the historian in, making her raise an eyebrow, “and then she used the middle claw to tickle his Adam’s apple. He peed himself.”

“Oh my God”, Patty laughed, earning a grin and another shrug from the blonde, “that poor guy. What did he do?”

“Wouldn’t take no for an answer”, Erin told her, rolling her eyes, by now more annoyed than hurt by Phil’s behaviour, “I’d broken up with him because I’d accidentally picked up some not so nice thoughts he’d had about me, then I quit my job at Columbia because the same thing happened with the dean there and he followed me to the lab when I went to talk to Holtzmann and Abby about it. He refused to leave when I asked him to so Holtz… helped him along. It was quite impressive.”

She smiled warmly at Holtzmann, the engineer grinning back at her; Patty raised an eyebrow, but made no comment, feeling somewhat relieved though when Abby came back and clapped her hands, excitedly asking if they were ready to test the equipment.

“Yup”, Holtzmann told her, smirking, “let’s go down to the alley, I’ll just get the proton pack.”

“Meet you there!” Abby beamed, then vanished with an audible _pop_ and the cloud of blue and black smoke she always left behind; Holtzmann rolled her eyes, mumbling “show-off” to herself before she went to get the pack, Erin not bothering to be subtle as she watched her pick it up with ease – she had no idea how heavy it was, but it certainly did look heavy, and just like when Holtzmann had pinned Phil to the wall, she felt a bit more than simply being impressed.

She thought back to the moment Holtzmann had picked her up on her arms with ease, and asked herself how strong exactly the engineer was; and a short while later, she got a vague idea, as Abby put on the proton pack and looked quite dismayed.

“Abby”, Patty wanted to know, looking at her in concern, while Holtzmann put a crash helmet onto her head, “is that comfortable?”

“It’s heavier than I thought it would be”, the researcher admitted, “I’m pretty sure it’s compacting my spinal column.”

“Poor you”, Erin showed sympathy, then smiled brightly though, “but this is so exciting! And that pack looks so good! Holtzmann, I’m beyond impressed.”

“Why thank you, hot stuff”, Holtzmann smirked, earning another raised eyebrow from Patty while Erin smiled shyly and blushed, the engineer giving her another wink and smirk before she focused on Abby and the test again.

“So you want to plant your feet firm”, she instructed, “bend your knees for the extra kick-back.”

“Okay”, Abby said, imitating the way Holtzmann was standing, then flipping the switch; the proton pack began to hum audibly, and even though they both trusted Holtzmann, Erin and Patty took a step back each, just to be on the safe side.

“Alright”, Holtzmann said, either not having noticed or not bothered by it, “put your thumb on the trigger button here, target’s over there” – Erin was quite endeared when she saw that the engineer had gone to the trouble of painting a bedsheet ghost on a wooden board, with evil eyes and the tongue out, “go to town on him.”

Nodding, Abby took a moment to aim, then pushed the trigger; and clearly, the kick-back was stronger than she had expected, the stream which shot from the proton gun throwing her back a few feet and making her yelp – before she teleported out of the pack, Holtzmann letting out a dismayed sound of her own when it hit the floor.

“Abby!” she then scolded, rushing to make sure the pack was okay, and earning a glare from her friend, giving her a sheepish look when she realized why Abby was offended.

“Um, sorry”, she said, “I’ll… make some adjustments.”

“Well, at least we know it works”, Patty smiled, gesturing at what was left of the target Holtzmann had made, Erin nodding immediately, giving the engineer another bright smile as she complimented her on a job well done.

_Man, these two are as subtle as a ton of bricks._

Patty’s thought made Erin blush, and she cleared her throat; Holtzmann gave her a confused look, didn’t inquire what was wrong though, instead declaring that she’d get back to work, earning nods from the other three.

“We should, too”, Abby said, “we gotta be prepared for the next time a ghost pops up, because I’m pretty sure that this mess is just beginning.”

“I’m not a precog, but I agree”, Erin nodded, “that guy building these devices probably won’t stop just because we’re on his trail now.”

“He might though if he knew what we all can do”, Holtzmann commented, smirking; Erin gave her a pointed look and said “no pinning!”, giggling when the engineer let out a disappointed “Awww” in response.

“Holtzy really likes pinning people, doesn’t she”, Patty commented as they walked back inside; with a little laugh, Abby nodded, then told her about the first time she had seen Holtzmann do so, the engineer whistling innocently at this little tale, for once unaware of the enamoured way Erin was looking at her.

* * *

After the prototype test, Erin had worked on her calculations and equations, getting so lost in her tasks that she didn’t even notice how time passed; Holtzmann’s tinkering formed a soothing background sound, and at some point after midnight, she drifted off to sleep at her desk, her head resting on her arms, her slumber quite deep despite the not exactly comfortable position.

Erin slept soundly for almost two hours, then awoke with a start, as it often happened to her – her experiences during childhood was making sleeping through the night quite difficult for her, even all these years later, and having fallen asleep at her desk certainly hadn’t helped; she rubbed at her tired eyes, then frowned when she realized that someone had put a blanket over her shoulders and back while she had been sleeping.

_Someone, right_ , she then thought to herself, smiling slightly, _you know exactly who that was._

It wasn’t hard to guess, since only Holtzmann and she still had been at the lab when she had drifted off into dreamland; she had a moment to wonder if the engineer had gone home, even though she couldn’t quite image that she’d just leave her there like this, blanket or not, then heard the soft sounds of metal on metal from the garage, frowning to herself as she checked the time.

Getting up, she grimaced at how her back and neck cracked, telling herself that she was getting too old to sleep at her desk like this; she stretched, causing a few more cracks, then walked down to the garage, not truly surprised to find Holtzmann working there, but quite surprised at all the changes she had made to the vehicle already.

“Wow”, she said out loud, having been quite sure that Holtzmann had noticed her entering; she realized her mistake a second later when, with speed she certainly hadn’t expected, Holtzmann shot from where she had been working on something on the car’s roof and, with startling speed and strength, slammed her up against the doorframe, the breath getting knocked out of her, her eyes going wide – before she went perfectly still as she felt the blonde’s claws up against her throat the blink of an eye later.

“Holtz”, she brought out in a trembling voice, trying not to move a muscle, “it’s… it’s me, Erin…”

For a few more seconds, Holtzmann kept her pinned up against the doorframe, her breaths coming in short, heavy bursts which sounded almost like growls; then, she seemed to realize what she was doing, as her eyes went wide and she froze – before she took a step back, Erin letting out a shaky breath as the cold metal vanished from her throat.

“Shit, I’m sorry”, Holtzmann said, wringing her hands, the claws gone again, “I didn’t… Erin I’m truly sorry, shit, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No”, Erin reassured her at once, deciding not to mention that her back had taken quite the blow when Holtzmann had slammed her against the wooden doorframe, the engineer looking as if she was about to cry even without that bit of information, “it’s okay, I’m fine…”

She fought the urge to reach up and rub her throat, feeling a pang of sympathy for Phil – even though Holtzmann hadn’t applied much pressure, she’d been able to tell how sharp exactly those claws were, and realized that a flick of the blonde’s wrist probably would have been enough to cut her throat and kill her.

“I guess I should have made more noise walking in here, huh”, she tried to lighten the mood, the attempt falling flat though, Holtzmann just giving her a miserable look before she ran both hands down her face.

“I’m so sorry”, she said yet again, “God, I’d never forgive myself if… Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine, really”, Erin reassured her again, “nothing happened, I’m perfectly fine, okay? You didn’t hurt me.”

Making sure to not move too fast, not wanting to startle Holtzmann again, Erin reached out and briefly touched her hand; the gesture seemed to calm the engineer down a bit, since she managed a weak smile, Erin smiling back at her much brighter before she gestured at the car, successfully changing the topic with what she said next.

“I’m impressed again, Holtzmann”, she told the blonde, “you got so much work done? Did you even sleep?”

“I don’t need much sleep”, Holtzmann replied with a shrug, feeling almost pathetic at how grateful she was for how smoothly Erin downplayed what just had happened, “which is fortunate, because I get… nightmares. After what just happened, fair warning, if you ever notice me tossing and turning in my sleep, don’t try to wake me up, I’ve stabbed holes into a few dozen mattresses and I really don’t want to nightmare-stab you…”

“Yeah, that would be bad”, Erin agreed, deciding not to ask in which scenario she might witness Holtzmann having a nightmare, even though her mind went to the gutter pretty quickly at _that_ thought, “so thanks for the warning.”

“I better tell Patty, too”, Holtzmann sighed, “just in case I ever fall asleep here and she tries to wake me. Abby knows, of course.”

“Before you tell Patty about possible nightmare-stabbing, you should warn her about the car though”, Erin said with a little laugh, taking a closer look at the paint job Holtzmann had given said car, from the new white chassis to the logo she had added to the doors, “she’s gonna freak otherwise.”

“Nah, I’ll surprise her”, the engineer replied with a wink, making the redhead giggle; and just like that, the incident from minutes ago was forgotten as they smiled at each other, Holtzmann more than glad that apparently, what had happened hadn’t changed a thing about how Erin thought of her.


	7. Chapter 7

Erin hadn’t bothered to go home anymore after having woken up at the firehouse at 2 a.m., but had decided to crash on the couch; and in the next morning, before Abby and Patty had arrived, Holtzmann supplied her with a MIT hoodie, so she wouldn’t have to wear the clothing she’d had on the day before.

Abby gave her quite the look when she arrived in the next morning, clearly recognizing the hoodie as Holtzmann’s, didn’t comment though; Erin shot a look which hopefully said _no we didn’t_ back at her, not quite sure if it had worked though from the way Abby raised her eyebrows at her.

Patty was next to arrive, and Kevin came last; the morning was spent quite productively, Holtzmann demonstrating the adjustments she had made to the proton packs (and keeping Patty from going to the garage so she wouldn’t see the hearse yet), another test in the alley proving that they could be used now without actually throwing them all around like rag dolls.

And when they came back inside after that test, they got a call, Kevin, to their delight, managing to actually take it, too; he told them that there was a goat on the loose at the Stonebrook theatre, and after a beat, Holtzmann said “I’ll load up the car” and rushed off to do just that.

“Oh!” Patty said while the engineer rushed off, “I got us all some coveralls from the MTA, so our clothing won’t get slimed! You wouldn’t want to get slime on Holtzy’s hoodie, right, Erin?”

“Yeah”, Erin replied, all innocence, only to realize what Patty was implying at the shit-eating grin the historian shot her afterwards; she rolled her eyes and tried for the _no, we didn’t_ look again, wondering why they both would assume that Holtzmann and she had had sex – yes, they were flirting, she had to admit that, but they’d only known each other for a few days, and at least Abby should know her better than to think that she’d jump into the bed with someone, no matter if male or female, after just knowing them for such a short while.

Deciding to ignore the implications for now, Erin hurried outside with the other two; and just a few seconds after they walked down the stairs onto the sidewalk, Holtzmann rounded the corner in the hearse, Patty going wide-eyed when she saw all the changes the engineer had made to it.

“What did you do to my uncle’s hearse!” she cried as she rushed over to the car, earning a shrug from the blonde, her response making Patty roll her eyes in exasperation.

“I fixed it!” Holtzmann said enthusiastically, just smirking when Patty told her how inappropriate this was; Abby took the passenger seat while Patty and Erin ended up in the back, Holtzmann frightening them all on the way to the theatre with both her driving style and the fact that she pulled on the coveralls and black rubber boots while driving.

“If you kill us all with your driving or with such stunts, we’ll all come back to haunt you”, Abby threatened as they got out of the car at the theatre; Holtzmann just grinned at her, then moved to open the trunk and pull out their gear, handing out the proton packs, Abby giving last minute instructions as they geared up.

“And no use of powers”, she reminded them, “well, except your mind-reading, Erin, nobody will notice that. No claws this time, Holtz!”

“Alriiiiight”, Holtzmann sighed, knowing that Abby was right – there might be people out there who had no problem with mutants, but there also were many who thought of them as abominations, and the last thing they needed would be to get attacked during a bust after someone had realized what they all were.

“Let’s go”, Erin and Abby said at pretty much the same moment after the researcher had finished her little briefing, Erin looking apologetic as she asked if Abby had wanted to be the one to say it; they settled on Erin getting to say it next time, Abby then repeating the words before they got walking, entering the theatre, feeling thrilled and scared at the same time.

“Are you the Ghostbusters?” a man who most likely was the theatre’s manager approached them at once; Abby confirmed that they were, and while a whimpering janitor was carried past them on a stretcher, he explained what had happened.

“It looked dreadful, just horrible”, he said, shaking his head, “throwing poor Fernando all over the room. I screamed and that might have scared it off, I’m told I have a very disturbing scream.”

“Okay”, Abby said, raising an eyebrow; he gave her an uneasy smile, then pointed them in the direction where the ghost had last been seen, and when they realized how large the possible area was, they decided to split up, staying in contact with their walkie-talkies as they snuck through the theatre’s basement.

Erin got a fright during the search for the ghost, courtesy of Holtzmann, who had put on a wig and hat from the theatre’s costume section; and Patty got a much more serious one, from the ghost itself, which had possessed a mannequin and used that to chase after her.

There was quite a bit of turmoil after that mannequin had been destroyed and the ghost ended up on stage; apparently, most people thought that the Ghostbusters and the capture of the ghost was part of the show, cheering them on, only to realize that it was more serious than that when the ghost attacked the band’s lead singer and threw him into a wall of speakers.

Holtzmann’s proton packs and the ghost trap worked perfectly fine though, and so, after a bit of a struggle (and a scary moment during which the ghost had sat on Patty), the ghost ended up in said trap, Erin barely able to believe it – they had captured a ghost, it was right there in this trap Holtzmann had built, and she couldn’t help herself, she let out a whoop of joy and threw both arms around the engineer.

“We did it!” she cheered while the band started to play again, celebrating with them even though they weren’t quite sure what just had happened; she was so excited that she forgot to keep up her guard for a moment, and picked up one of Holtzmann’s thoughts as the blonde hugged her back.

It was nothing but a giant **YAY** in neon colours, and Erin found herself grinning even wider.

* * *

Whenever Erin had been forced to go on faculty parties to kiss ass, she had avoided it to dance as much as possible, always having felt awkward and as if everyone was watching her and laughing at her; in this very moment though, she couldn’t have cared less, but simply let loose, dancing through the lab with abandon.

“Come on you guys, we gotta celebrate”, she urged the others on when only Patty joined her at first, “Holtz come on, dance with me!”

She grabbed the engineer’s hand and pulled her onto the impromptu dancefloor, ignoring how Abby cackled at her choice of dance partner; it didn’t take long until Holtzmann’s hands were on her hips and hers were on the blonde’s shoulders, neither of them noticing how Patty and Abby nudged each other and grinned as they danced.

“Ten bucks they’re gonna make out before the song is over”, Abby whispered to Patty, pouting when Patty immediately shook her head though.

“No bet”, the historian then said, “just look at ‘em, of course they’re gonna make out. Bet if Erin read Holtzy’s mind now, all she’d get would be hearts flying around.”

“Hearts with little claws”, Abby giggled, earning a snort from the taller woman, while a few feet away, the dancing of Erin and Holtzmann had slowed down, even though the song was still rather fast paced; and just when Abby thought that now, it would happen for sure, now they would kiss, Kevin butted in, completely ruining the moment.

“Excuse me, bosses?” he said, Erin flinching out of Holtzmann’s hold in surprise, turning to look, only feeling more startled when she saw the man standing behind their receptionist, a guy she knew all too well, a famed debunker of the paranormal.

“Mister Smarten Christ is here to see you”, he said, making the man frown before he corrected him to “Martin Heiss”, smiling at the Ghostbusters afterwards while Abby quickly switched off the radio.

“I hear you captured a ghost”, he said as he came strolling into the lab like he owned the place, “at this theatre? And that video you posted of the subway was very… interesting.”

“We did”, Erin confirmed, stepping forward, “Dr Erin Gilbert, and these are my colleagues, Dr Abigail Yates, Dr Jillian Holtzmann and Patricia Tolan.”

“Quite the crew, are you not”, Heiss observed, raising his eyebrows as he looked at them in their coveralls, his eyebrows climbing even higher when he got a closer look at Erin’s teal boots, “very… interesting. You got your doctorates where?”

“I don’t think this is any of your business”, Holtzmann snapped, prompting Erin to place a calming hand on her forearm, the physicist casting a worried glance at the engineer when she felt how tense the other woman was, it was as if she had put her hand down onto a rock; Heiss just gave another smarmy smile, then walked past the two and sat down, raising an eyebrow at them again.

“So?” he then said, leaning on his cane, “that ghost you captured?”

“Is in the trap”, Abby told him coldly, fighting the urge to tell Holtzmann that she should throw the man out, “and no, before you ask, we’re not going to release it so you can look at it. You’re welcome to come back and look at it once we found a safe way to contain it.”

“Aw, how unfortunate”, Heiss commented, clearly not believing her, “so you have a ghost in a trap, but can’t show me? Too bad. Do you mean that thermos when you say trap?”

He poked at the trap with his cane, and Holtzmann tensed up even further; Erin rubbed her arm, hoping to soothe her, not wanting to imagine what he would say or write about them, should he ended up pinned to the wall like Phil and she herself had.

“How long did it take you to set this up?” he wanted to know, digging out a camcorder and aiming it at the trap before he got up from his chair for a closer look at it, “all this equipment? Does any of it actually work or is it just for show?”

“I think you should leave”, Abby told him, even colder now, while Erin moved on to gripping Holtzmann’s arm, even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold her back, should she decide to go after the man in earnest, “you were not invited here, and we will not release a malevolent spirit just so you can film it!”

“Of course you won’t”, Heiss replied, his gaze falling onto the pedal with which the trap could be opened and closed a second later; Erin didn’t need to be a mindreader to realize what he was about to do, her cry of “No!” being ignored as Heiss pushed down on it, chuckling to himself when the trap sprung open and the four women scrambled to get their proton packs.

“Well?” he said mockingly, leaning over the trap so he could film its insides, “you in there, Casper?”

The ghost came rushing out of the trap, and slammed into the shocked man’s body; Heiss just had time let out a short cry, then the ghost threw him through the window and flew out after him, vanishing into the sky while Heiss’ body hit the pavement with a low thud, the four women staring at the broken window in horror, unable to believe how fast this had happened.


	8. Chapter 8

“I’ll ask you for the last time”, the police officer said, sounding quite annoyed, “who threw him out the window?”

“A ghost threw him out the window”, Holtzmann told him, while the ambulance men carried the dead man’s body away; the police officer glared at her, crossing his arms over his chest, Holtzmann holding his gaze with the same intensity, not impressed even when he threatened them all with jail.

“It’s true”, Erin threw in, even though she, unlike Holtzmann, almost shrank back when the officer’s glare moved on to her, “he opened the trap and the ghost came out and… threw him out the window.”

The officer opened his mouth, probably to tell them he would arrest them all; before he could say so though, two black, sleek cars came to a halt close to the small group with screeching tires, men in black suits getting out and purposefully striding towards them.

Holtzmann’s reaction was immediate and unexpected; Erin heard the _snikt_ from behind her, and the heavy, growl-like breathing the blonde appeared to adapt when she was upset, and quickly turned so that she was both facing her and blocking her from view.

“Holtz!” she said, glancing over her shoulder at the men, thankful that the police officer had stopped them and was demanding to know what was going on, “Holtzmann! Listen to me, it’s all going to be fine, alright? Calm down, please, for me?”

One of the men looked at them as he heard her talk, and his eyes widened, then narrowed; and again, Holtzmann’s reaction was immediate – she pushed past Erin before the physicist could do more than cry out “No!” and rushed the man, his reaction just as quick, a gun in his hand all at once, unsettlingly steady when he aimed it at the engineer.

“Stand down”, he snapped, while Erin covered her mouth in shock, sure that he would shoot the blonde any moment, “we have nothing to do with that branch and we are not here for you!”

“Holtzmann!” Abby snapped a second later, making use of her power to put herself between the man and her friend, unperturbed when the blonde’s glare focused on her, “you heard him!”

Quickly, Erin and Patty rushed to the blonde’s side, Erin grasping her shoulder – even though she was quite aware that this might end with claws at her throat again, or perhaps somewhere in her body – and saying her name with the same urgency Abby had used, glad when this time, Holtzmann seemed to relax, just the tiniest bit.

“We do not want to harm any of you”, the agent’s partner, a younger man, went on, “the mayor wants to see you, that is the only reason we are here. Alright? Dr Holtzmann?”

Holtzmann was still snarling, and Erin moved to rub her back, hoping she’d manage to calm her down; and finally, to the physicist’s relief, the claws slid back into the other woman’s forearms… and just then, she picked up _something_ from her, a series of images which made her head and her heart hurt.

_Needles long and sharp digging into her flesh icy cold coating her bones and she screams and screams beneath the oxygen mask water all around her shadowy figures watching her congratulating each other on a job well done and it hurts it hurts it hurts—_

Erin practically slammed the shields back into place, cutting the flow of images off; she stared at Holtzmann in shock and horror, and after a second, the blonde looked away from her, shoulders slumping as she walked to one of the cars without another word, the physicist staring after her, her heart racing as she tried to make sense of what she just had seen.

* * *

During the meeting with the mayor – during which the man had told them that they were well aware of paranormal events, but pretty much had issued a gag order for the Ghostbusters and had told them they had it under control, ushering them out again without giving them much of a chance defend themselves – Holtzmann had been very quiet, just having sat there, staring at her boots and rubbing the skin between her knuckles; Erin kept giving her worried looks, but the blonde either didn’t notice or pretended not to, not reacting the slightest.

After the meeting, the agents drove them back to the theatre, so they could get their car; and once they were back at the restaurant, Holtzmann immediately vanished up onto the roof, Erin looking after her in concern, but figuring that it might not be the best idea to go after her right away.

“Erin?” Abby approached her right when she had decided she’d give the engineer a few minutes alone, “you saw something, didn’t you? When that agent was talking to Holtzmann?”

“Yes”, Erin confirmed, casting a worried glance towards the stairs which led up to the roof, “but I’m not even sure what it was. It was… bad though. Really bad.”

“I could tell”, Abby sighed, “from the way you looked at her afterwards. I don’t know exactly what happened to her, she never really told me anything but… when her nightmares get really bad, she talks in her sleep. And judging from how she reacted to those government goons today… Go look after her, would you? She was really embarrassed after I heard her talk in her sleep for the first time, thought I’d… I don’t know, judge her or something, and she’ll think the same about you now.”

“I would never!” Erin said, shocked; Abby smiled at her and nodded, reassuring her that she knew, but reminding her that Holtzmann didn’t, and that this was just how the blonde’s mind worked, especially when it came to whatever it was which had happened to her in her past.

“I’ll make sure she’s okay”, the physicist mumbled after that explanation, earning a thankful nod from her friend; she smiled back at her, then walked up the stairs to the roof, already hearing the distinct sound of claws being popped and retracted, over and over again, making her wonder if this was something Holtzmann did whenever she was upset.

Remembering how the engineer had reacted the last time Erin had startled her, she made sure to make noise this time as she walked to where Holtzmann was sitting on the ground; the blonde briefly glanced at her, then stared down at her hand again, watching how the three sharp blades shot out, then slowly retracted.

“Does it hurt?” Erin softly asked as she moved to sit next to her, knowing it was a somewhat dumb question, but unable to think of anything else to break the silence, “when they come out?”

“Every time”, Holtzmann gave back after a moment, looking at her again, the desolate expression in her eyes making Erin’s heart clench up – she never would have thought that the brilliant engineer, who was so enthusiastic about her work and offered fruit from her claws, could ever look like that, and suddenly, all she wanted was to make that look vanish from the other woman’s gaze.

“I’m sorry”, she said, reaching out and grasping her hand, glad when the claws didn’t come out again, not wanting to end up cut, “I didn’t mean to… pry, or something. It just kinda happened…”

“I know”, Holtzmann told her, looking at where Erin’s fingers were curled around hers, but not pulling back, “I’m sorry you had to see that. Seeing those guys in their suits just… kinda brought that up.”

Erin squeezed her hand, not sure what she could say to make this better; for a few moments, they sat there in silence, then the physicist spoke up again, making the blonde look at her once more.

 “I’m not sure what I saw”, she said, choosing her words carefully, not wanting to upset the engineer even more, “and you don’t have to tell me anything, but… whoever did this to you, they had no right to. And it’s not your fault, and it doesn’t make me think any less of you. Alright?”

She wasn’t quite sure if she had said the right thing, but to her relief, Holtzmann gave her a weak smile after a moment; it wasn’t much, nothing compared to the happy grins she had seen from her earlier, but it was better than nothing, and Erin cherished it, glad that she had managed to cause it.

“You know”, she went on, rubbing the other woman’s knuckles now, figuring that this would soothe her even further, after she had seen Holtzmann do it several times when upset by now, “it’s kind of a pity that my power only works one way. Because if I could let you look into my mind, you’d see how highly I think of you, and that I mean it when I tell you that what I saw changes nothing.”

“I believe you”, Holtzmann reassured her, “even without looking into your mind. Who knows what else I might find here.”

She sounded a bit more like her old self at the last few words, a bit teasing and quite flirty; Erin raised her eyebrows, then smiled coyly, realizing that they were alone on this roof and that it was very unlikely that someone would interrupt them again this time.

“You might be surprised”, she mumbled, moving her free hand to the back of the other woman’s neck, noting her brief shudder when she caressed the fine hair growing there; for a moment, she almost expected Abby to teleport in out of nowhere to make sure they were both fine, but nothing of the sort happened, and she decided to make use of the chance given, not sure when another one like it would present itself.

And so, she leaned in, and kissed Holtzmann, mildly surprised at how soft the other woman’s lips were – she wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it hadn’t quite been this, and the slight taste of lemon and the scent of cinnamon and something burned surprised her a bit, too, the sensations only increasing when Holtzmann kissed her back at once.

What she _certainly_ hadn’t been expecting was to hear the distinct sound of Holtzmann’s claws popping out.

“Oh!” the engineer let out, pulling back from the kiss and looking embarrassed, staring down at the blades as if she was seeing them for the first time, eyes going even wider when she realized she had poked a hole through the hoodie Erin was wearing, thankfully not having touched the skin, “oh jeez, I’m sorry, I don’t know what… Yikes!”

She hurriedly made them retract, Erin looking down at the hoodie and poking her finger through the hole; Holtzmann looked even more mortified, but then, the physicist started to giggle, her cheeks reddening as she laughed, the engineer smiling as well after a few moments.

“I’m sorry”, Erin brought out after just laughing for a while, “I’m not laughing at you, it’s just… You poked a hole in your hoodie. When I kissed you. I _really_ didn’t expect that, oh my God, is that like some sort of claw boner?”

Realizing what she just had said, she went wide-eyed and clapped one hand over her mouth while Holtzmann stared at her, then let out “Erin!”, full of indignation; after a second, Erin giggled again, blushing now, relieved when Holtzmann gave her a slight smirk in response.

“I’m sorry”, she said again, “I really don’t know where that came from. Hey, does that mean you really liked me kissing you, or was it so bad you want to stab me?”

Holtzmann rolled her eyes in response, then gave her another smirk – before she pulled her in for another kiss, answering her question in the best way possible, the unpleasant run-in with the agents and the mayor quickly forgotten as their kiss deepened, the feeling of Holtzmann’s hand entangling in her hair and her lips on hers being all Erin could focus on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Elder Holtzbro maschinenmensch who came up with the glorious expression "claw boner". I lol'ed harder at it than a woman my age probably should. XD


	9. Chapter 9

When they came back downstairs, Abby took one look at their joined hands and raised an eyebrow; then, she noticed the hole in the MIT hoodie and her second eyebrow went up, as well, Erin shrugging at the look on her best friend’s face.

“Holtz got a bit overexcited when we kissed”, she then said, blushing a bit at admitting that kissing had happened, feeling better though when Abby smiled, “I’m really glad she poked that hole into the hoodie and not in me.”

“That is a good thing indeed”, Abby solemnly agreed, while Patty looked somewhat alarmed, “would have been a bad ending for a kiss.”

Erin smiled and nodded, momentarily tempted to look into Abby’s mind to see what she thought of this development; she remembered what had happened the last time she had tried to do so though, and since she couldn’t see any dismay or judgement in Abby’s features, she figured that it was okay, without having to look into her friend’s mind.

“Okay people”, Holtzmann said, distracting her from her thoughts, “meet me in the alleyway in ten? I got some treats for you, Holtzmann-style.”

“Sure”, Abby smiled, excited; Holtzmann beamed back at her, then pulled Erin in for a brief, but tender kiss, the physicist blushing again at this somewhat public display of affection, telling herself that it was alright though when the only reactions it got from the other two Ghostbusters being smiles and declarations on how cheesy this was.

Holtzmann winked at them, then practically skipped away to prepare her treats; Erin looked after her fondly, until Abby cleared her throat, and she looked at her friend again, worried once more that perhaps, the researcher thought this was a bad idea and would bring it up, now that Holtzmann had left the room.

“You’ll be good for each other”, Abby said instead of expressing dismay, to the physicist’s relief, “just don’t… hurt her? She’s been through enough, and yes, I’ll have the same talk with her, but… I really do think you got a good thing here.”

“I haven’t known you guys for that long?” Patty threw in, making them both look at her, “but I think Abby’s right. You might be just what the other needs, and you better believe me, because my power includes sensing such things!”

Erin wasn’t quite sure if Patty’s power actually did include that, after what she had revealed about it, but decided not to question it; instead, she smiled gratefully and nodded, looking the way Holtzmann had gone a bit wistfully before her gaze returned to the other two women.

“You know”, she said, moving to join them where they were sitting at one of the tables, “if you had told me a week ago that I’d end up working as a Ghostbuster with three other mutants, and make out on the roof with one of them, I would have laughed and called them crazy. And yet here we are.”

“Funny how these things work out sometimes, huh”, Abby smirked, then reached over to grasp the other woman’s hand and giving it a brief squeeze, “but I’m glad it did. I’m glad you’re back in my life, Erin.”

“So am I”, Erin reassured her, touched, Patty looking a bit confused, but deciding not to butt in as the two were clearly having a moment, “and… Abby, I’m really sorry for… back then. I never should have just abandoned you like that…”

“It’s okay”, Abby told her, the ease with which she forgave her making the physicist’s heart clench up, “you’re here now, and we’re about to make history! Unless Holtzmann blows us all up in the alley now.”

And just like that, Erin was smiling again, and even giggling a bit; Abby smiled back at her and squeezed her hand once more, then suggested that they should go and meet Holtzmann in said alley now, the other two nodding, curious about what the engineer had prepared for them, all of them quite sure that whatever it’d was, it’d be just as impressively brilliant as the proton packs and trap had been, looking forward to seeing what Holtzmann had come up with this time.

* * *

“Alright”, Holtzmann said as the other three found her in the alleyway, standing a table with various weapons on it, “I was a productive Holtzy and made a couple extra weapons for us to use at busts. Erin?”

The physicist stepped forward, not quite surprised that she had been the first one to be presented with her new weapon; Abby and Patty snickered behind her though, and she blushed, while Holtzmann remained unperturbed, smiling at her as she picked up what looked like a shotgun and held it out to her.

“Proton shotgun”, she confirmed the impression Erin had had, “I made us a new target, so go crazy.”

She smirked and gestured at the wooden board with yet another ghost painted onto it; Erin nodded, then took careful aim – even though she knew she wouldn’t have much time to aim like that in actual battle with a ghost or more – before she pulled the trigger; the shotgun practically jumped in her hands as it fired a surprisingly large proton blast, the board disintegrating when it got hit.

“Holy crap”, Erin mumbled, staring at the weapon in awe, “that… is really powerful. Thank you, Holtz.”

“If I didn’t mess up on the calculations, it should take out two to three ghosts at once, given that they are close enough and not above a class IV”, Holtzmann told her, smiling at how happy Erin appeared to be with the weapon, “not sure we’ll ever run into such a large ghost group, but just in case. Patty! You’re up next!”

“Yay”, Patty said, excited, Erin stepping aside and admiring the shotgun some more while Holtzmann picked up the next item, which looked like a wood chipper, smirking at the taller woman as she presented it to her.

“This puppy”, she said, “I call a Ghost Chipper. It sucks the ghost in here, disintegrates it, and spits the sad remains out at the back here.”

“That… is at the same time awesome and frightening”, Patty told her, making her grin, “how do you come up with these things?”

“My brain is weird”, Holtzmann shrugged, then pointed out the Ghost Chipper’s trigger button in excitement, “try it, try it!”

Abby and Erin exchanged a look, then each took a step back; as it turned out though, that had been exactly the wrong thing to do – since, when Patty pushed the trigger, the Ghost Chipper sucked in the nearest trash and turned it into confetti, confetti which then ended up in the hair and even inside the clothes of the two women.

“God, it’s like Mardi Gras in here”, Abby complained as she shook out her bra; Erin let out a vaguely agreeing noise and tried to get the stuff out of her hair, Holtzmann distracting Abby from the bits and pieces in her bra with what she had built for her moments later.

“For you, a proton glove”, she said, beaming at her friend, “maximizes flexibility in hand-to-spectre combat, which will be easiest for you, with your teleport skill. Pop up in front of the ghost, punch it, pop back out! Just give it a swing, it’s motion-activated.”

“Okay!” Abby said happily, pulling on the glove before she punched the air in front of her; a ball of proton energy shot out, ricocheting off the buildings left and right before it rushed back towards the women, all four of them ducking, a loud boom echoing through the alley when the projectile hit Benny’s motorbike and set the engine aflame.

“That”, Abby brought out once the explosion had echoed away, “was… _awesome!”_

She raised the proton glove in triumph, earning a wide grin from the engineer; and while Holtzmann and Patty high-fives, Abby and Erin almost did the same, realizing the last moment how possibly deadly this high-five would end up being.

“Alright”, Abby said, looking a bit sheepish when Benny came out, clearly curious about the noise, and saw what had happened to his bike, giving the group an incredulous look, “who’s up for food? Benny, let’s talk compensation while you take our order, okay?”

She smiled innocently at him and led him away, and after a glance at Erin and Holtzmann, Patty followed her; Erin blushed a bit at how blatantly the other two left them alone, then decided to simply be grateful, smiling at the blonde as she turned to face her, her smile only widening when Holtzmann placed both hands on her waist and pulled her closer.

“You know”, Erin said as she brought up her hands to entwine them behind the engineer’s neck, “you continue to impress me. When did you build all this?”

“I told you”, Holtzmann replied with a shrug and a smirk, “I don’t need much sleep. So I figured, I might as well do things useful to the group while you guys are snoring away.”

“Aw, so that means, we’ll never get to snuggle during the night?” Erin wanted to know, raising an eyebrow; the engineer chuckled and shrugged, then leaned closer, her warm breath on her ear when she replied sending shivers up and down Erin’s spine.

“Perhaps”, the blonde said, “you’ll have to tire me out first.”

“Tempting”, Erin mumbled, then pulled her in for a kiss; and as it deepened quite quickly, she was amazed at herself, all too aware how she would have reacted, had a woman said something like that to her during her days at Columbia, but now, all she felt was tempted indeed, and happy, amazed by how right all of this felt.

* * *

A while later, Erin’s good mood was dampened somehow by a report they happened to catch on TV, the mayor’s PA Jennifer Lynch telling the news that the Ghostbusters were frauds and couldn’t be taken seriously; Holtzmann put a calming hand on her back the moment this came up though, and Abby rubbing her shoulder, and she immediately found it much easier to not let it get to her so much.

“Well”, she said with a hint of sarcasm as the next piece came on in the news, “now we’re all Ghost Girls. Thanks for the support, Mister Mayor.”

She rolled her eyes, making Abby chuckle; glad that her best friend wasn’t more upset by this, she then patted the physicist’s shoulder, eager to take away the little bit of dismay Erin clearly was feeling at the report.

“Ignore these people”, she advised, making Holtzmann nod empathically, “during the past few days, we’ve seen multiple malevolent class IV apparitions, and we know what we saw! And we’re not the only ones – I’ve read about this all morning, there’s sightings all over the city. Wailing spirits sighted at 6th and 26th. Another one, a spectral polar bear on 36rd and 5th. Then there was that weeping wall in the thrist store at Chelsea…”

“Wait, wait”, Erin mumbled, frowning as she considered all the things Abby just had listed “did you say 6th and 26th?”

She turned and grabbed a map of Manhattan from the table nearby while Abby confirmed that this was what she had said; quickly, Erin marked down all the spots where ghosts had been encountered, from their own ones to those others had reported, her frown deepening when she quickly could see the shape they all were forming.

And the others could, too, when she connected the locations she had marked on the map and they formed a large X.

“What does this look like to you?” she still said, hoping against hope that the others wouldn’t say what she was fearing; they didn’t do her the favour though, Abby and Holtzmann saying “Ley lines” at the same time, Erin giving a quick explanation when Patty wanted to know what this all was about.

“Abby and I dismissed the theory though”, she said while Holtzmann moved from her side to get one of the books they hadn’t unpacked yet, “it just seemed too random to have any merit.”

“Dismiss this”, Holtzmann said in dismay, opening the book to one of the maps printed and placing the Manhattan map over it, and none of them was truly surprised to see that it was a perfect match.

“What’s at this spot where the lines cross?” Erin asked, Patty being the one to answer, telling her that it was the Mercado hotel, looking worried as she told them how much sense this made.

“Even before there was a building there, all sorts of massacres and creepy shit happened in that spot”, she let them know, Erin and Abby exchanging another worried look as they fully realized what the culprit was doing.

“He’s charging the ley lines”, Erin was the one to say it out loud, Holtzmann groaning and facepalming, Abby taking over while Patty pulled up the hotel’s website on her laptop, “and if he gets a machine big enough into the hotel, he’ll create a vortex and will just break the barrier. I’m calling this in.”

She rushed off to the phone, and while she made the call, Patty cried out “That’s him! The dude from the subway who said all the creepy shit to me and walked onto the tracks!”, pointing one of the hotel employees out on the photo the website provided for potential guests.

“Always the sad, pale ones”, Holtzmann commented, Erin grabbing her arm as her dismay and bit of fear suddenly turned into excitement; Abby ended her call and opted to teleport to their side, not bothering to keep the urgency out of her voice after what they just had found out.

“Okay, Ladies”, she said, putting the phone aside, “let’s gear up and hit that Mercado.”


	10. Chapter 10

Once again, Holtzmann drove recklessly, but at least, they didn’t need to change in the car this time, making the drive a tiny bit less dangerous; the people in the hotel’s lobby were looking at them strangely as they entered, whispering to each other, the receptionist looking quite unimpressed by their gear when she asked them what they wanted in quite the rude tone.

“Where’s your janitor”, Abby asked, and to her surprise, the receptionist didn’t appear as if this surprised or alarmed her at all; she just rolled her eyes, still sounding rude when she replied, but telling them what they wanted to know. “God, what did he do now, that nutjob? Wait, no, don’t tell me, just go down the stairs. Basement.”

“Thank you”, Abby replied, then led the way; Holtzmann was right behind her, Erin behind the blonde, and Patty brought up the rear, all four of them having their proton guns out, Erin wondering if she was the only one who felt dreadfully nervous again.

_What if he attacks us,_ she thought to herself, gulping, _yes, we’re four and he’s alone… well, we think he is… but what if he’s not? Or if he has a weapon?_

Then, she looked at Holtzmann in front of her, saw the way she let go of the proton gun with one hand and flexed her fingers, and nearly smacked herself as she remembered that one member of their team carried weapons of her own wherever she went, and certainly, what the engineer could do would be enough to subdue Rowan until reinforcements from the government arrived.

Abby looked at them as they stopped in front of a heavy steel double door; they could see something flicker and spark through the small gap between the door and the ground, all four taking in a deep breath and making sure their weapons were ready before Abby pushed the door open.

She almost called out, then thought better about it – this was how people got themselves killed in the horror movies Holtzmann and she often marathoned during late nights at the lab, after all; as it turned out though, the man, a guy Holtzmann’s age named Rowan North, had known they were there all along.

He came at her a second after she had seen his frighteningly big and sophisticated machine, and the mirrors around it, the hands pushing against them from the Other Side – and he was yelling incoherently as he did so, wielding a combat knife as he rushed at her.

Abby reacted more on instinct than out of rational thought, vanishing into thin air and reappearing a safe distance behind him; unperturbed, he just rushed on, towards the next in line, Erin and Patty somehow managing to jump out of the way when he slammed into Holtzmann and drove her back, until her back hit a table, a low grunt coming from her when he tried to pin her to it with his weight, the engineer managing to grab his forearm before he could bring the knife down.

He snarled at her, eyes glinting madly as he tried to force the knife down, the tip dangerously close to her face already; she grit her teeth in response, eyes darting from the knife to his face, her forearms visibly tensing as she pushed his arm back, while Erin and Patty tried to figure out some way to help which wouldn’t end up with him stabbing one of them.

Then, Erin saw her adjust her hands, bring them into the right position, and realized that Patty and she wouldn’t need to help at all; she grabbed the historian’s arm to keep her from rushing at Rowan – and perhaps use her power to drain him – and a second later, just as Patty shot her a questioning look, the engineer’s claws popped out, Rowan having a moment to stare at them with his eyes going wide, his efforts to stab the blonde ending at once as his muscles went slack at that unexpected development.

With a roar Erin could only describe as animalistic, Holtzmann made immediate use of his lessening resistance, and pushed him backwards and away from her with all the strength she could bring up; and a second before she could go after him, and do something she might end up regretting, Erin shouted “Don’t kill him!”, her hand coming up to cover her mouth when it didn’t seem as if the blonde had heard her.

A second later though, she was relieved to see that Holtzmann had registered what she had said, and apparently was taking it to heart – because instead of ramming her blades into his chest, as the physicist almost had expected her too, she headbutted the man instead, and even where they stood a few feet away, Erin and Patty could hear the low _chink_ from somewhere within her skull when she connected.

Dazed, Rowan dropped the knife and stumbled back, towards his machine, clapping his hands in front of his bleeding nose; Abby yelled at him to stay away from the machine, fearing what he might do, but he didn’t listen, turning and lunging for it, all four women taking a step back in horror when he grabbed hold of it and his body began to jerk and jump as the electricity ran through him.

“Oh God the smell”, Erin brought out as his body hit the floor, turning away from the dead man; she heard the noise of Holtzmann retracting her claws, then the engineer’s arms wrapped around her from behind, and she turned to hide her face in the other woman’s shoulder, neither of them registering the policemen and agents when they came rushing into the basement a minute later.

* * *

While Rowan’s body was taken away, the four of them got “fake-arrested”, as Jennifer Lynch put it, “just to avoid mass hysteria, of course”; and to make it even worse, their car had been towed, so they had to walk back to their lab.

“At least they’ll return the car to the restaurant”, Abby tried to find something positive about the situation, earning an unhappy sigh from Erin, “just imagine we had to pick it up God knows where.”

“You could just teleport there and get it”, Holtzmann teased, and Abby had the grace to blush at what she said next, “like you did back there so that creep could slam into me instead of you!”

“I’m sorry!” Abby apologized, blushing, “I just… I did it without thinking. And I knew you were gonna be fine, come on, he had one knife and you have six.”

“And unlike him, you can’t drop yours”, Patty added, laughing at her own words as she continued, “man, did you see the look on his face when they popped out? _Oh Crap_ doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

“Excuse me!” a voice butted in from behind before anyone could respond to this, Abby rolling her eyes when she turned to look and saw some pasty guy with glasses behind them, filming them with his cell phone, “you are the Ghostbusters, are you not? I have a few questions for my vlog!”

“Go away”, Abby snapped at him, knowing that none of them was in the mood to deal with this guy – and all too aware of Holtzmann’s temper, knowing how fast it could flare up, especially after excitement like the short fight with Rowan.

“Just a few questions”, he persisted, “Miss Gilbert! I’ve talked to a few people in your hometown, turns out this isn’t the first time you make up stories about ghosts! Have you always been a fraud, Ghost Girl?”

As it turned out, Abby should have worried more about Erin’s temper than Holtzmann’s; while the blonde just glared, and set her jaw, Erin whirled around with a cry of “Don’t call me that!” and went after him, Abby needing a second to react, but quickly catching on, holding her back before she could do more than grabbing him and glaring at him.

“Erin stop!” she implored, Patty nodding in enthusiasm while Holtzmann looked as if she wouldn’t have minded the thought of Erin hitting the guy much, “he’s too pasty to fight!”

Breathing heavily, Erin let go of the man, glaring at him, but at least not looking as if she wanted to hit him; Abby rubbed her arm soothingly, regretting that she had no powers which would calm her down, giving her best to sound calming when she told her to ignore the man.

“Just let him go back to his mom’s basement”, she added, with a glare at the man, who seemed unimpressed, “you know he’s not worth it.”

It could have ended then and there, and they all could have walked away unharmed; as it was though, the guy certainly didn’t know how to stop, his voice full of contempt when he addressed the redhead once more. “They should put you back in therapy, you freak.”

Abby could pinpoint the exact moment Erin snapped, and hurried to get out of the way, glad that she had remembered not to actually teleport; Erin pulled back and, with surprising skill, punched the guy straight in the face, a mixture of oddly surprised groan and grunt coming from him when his legs buckled beneath him and he went down.

“Good one babe”, Holtzmann complimented, smirking as she moved to Erin’s side, “your hand okay?”

“Fine”, Erin gave back, shaking out her fist – her knuckles did sting a bit, but she had taken self-defence classes in college, and was quite glad to see that she still remembered how to throw a proper punch, “Abby, I’m sorry I hit him, but…”

“It’s okay”, Abby told her, “I shouldn’t say this, but he deserved it for… Erin _look out!”_

Her cry came just in time to warn them as the man had managed to get back on his feet, and lunged towards the physicist, pulling back his fist; Holtzmann took one quick step to get in front of Erin, barely flinching when the man’s fist connected with her jaw, Erin wincing when she heard something crack and knew it hadn’t come from the engineer.

“Ow!” the guy wailed, stumbling back again, staring at his hand and the broken fingers with wide eyes, “what… ow! How! I broke my hand!”

Holtzmann just gave him a look, rolling her eyes when he actually started to cry; without bothering to give him any more attention than that, she turned to look at the others, surprisingly calm when she asked them if they could keep going now.

“Sure”, Abby replied, halfway having expected her to pop her claws and slice the guy up, for having the audacity to actually go after Erin and then hit her, instead, “um… let’s go then.”

She figured it would be better to get away before Holtzmann would maybe change her mind and decide to slice the man up after all; clearly able to tell what she was thinking, Holtzmann winked at her, then took hold of Erin’s hand, the physicist smiling at her as they got moving again, eager to get back to the restaurant.


	11. Chapter 11

Erin felt quite dismayed when, in the next day, she came upon a news report on punching the man out; to make it even worse, they interviewed Filmore about her, too, and even that dreadful dean from Higgins, despite the fact that the man had only met her once, when he had fired Abby and Holtzmann.

She was angry and upset by the time the news switched to something else, clenching her fists on the table as she pondered how unfair this was, here they were, having stopped Rowan from creating a vortex which would have brought death and destruction to New York, and still, thanks to the mayor and his gag order and his need to keep the cat in the bag, nobody knew what they had done, but instead thought that the four of them were just frauds and people trying to gain attention.

Then, Holtzmann slid into the booth wearing a tank top which left her arms and shoulders bare, and Erin forgot all about unfavourable news as her mouth went dry from one second to the next.

“You’ll never guess who's desk I set on fire”, Holtzmann told her, either not noticing Erin’s reaction to her looks or not caring, “or you might once… you see your desk. It’s a good thing I don’t have firepowers because then I’d set things on fire even more often.”

“You have really nice arms”, Erin blurted in reply, blushing deeply at how Holtzmann raised an eyebrow, and even managed to turn quite the lovely shade of crimson when Abby laughed behind her; taking the chance given by this distraction, Abby switched off the TV, glad for the distraction Holtzmann accidentally had provided – she couldn’t read minds, but that hadn’t been exactly necessary to be able to tell how much the report had affected Erin.

“Thanks, babe”, the engineer said, winking at her, “and the best part is, it kinda comes with my powers, I don’t even need to do much for them.”

“Which is highly unfair”, Abby added, rolling her eyes, knowing just what to say to take Erin’s mind off the report completely and make sure the physicist wouldn’t end up pondering it endlessly and perhaps get anxious or even depressed over it, “you should see her abs, if I worked out every day for a hundred years, I wouldn’t look like that.”

At hearing this, Erin somehow managed to choke on her own spit, and Holtzmann had to pat her back to help her get the coughing fit under control.

“You okay, babe?” the blonde said with a little laugh, prompting Erin to blush again as she nodded; embarrassed by her reaction, she cleared her throat, then said that she needed to get some water, coming to her feet, cheeks still flaming as she hurried into the washroom.

She quickly gulped down a few sips of water, then fanned herself; it wasn’t the first time she reacted to a woman like this, but it was the first time she actually was dating said woman, and her mind went to the gutter pretty quickly as Abby’s comment about the engineer’s allegedly awesome abs came up in her thoughts again.

_Jesus, Gilbert, get it together,_ she scolded herself, splashing some cold water in her face for good measure, _you act like a teenager with a crush!_

She drank a few more sips, then left the washroom again, fighting the urge to facepalm when Holtzmann winked at her and she blushed yet again; she smiled at the engineer though, telling herself that two could play this game, and clearly surprised her by moving over to her and sitting down on her lap, putting both arms her, the younger woman quickly returning the embrace.

“So”, Erin stated, in a coy tone which made the engineer swallow audibly, “you think I got a chance to see those spectacular abs any time soon?”

“Certainly, hot stuff”, Holtzmann told her, not quite having expected that – she was perfectly aware that this was the first time Erin actually acted on being bisexual and attracted to another woman, something Abby had more than clear to her when she had warned her to not hurt the redhead, “name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

Erin smiled in response, and kissed her gently, a short and innocent kiss, the physicist mindful of Abby and Patty still in the room; Holtzmann was sporting quite the grin when the redhead pulled back again, both of them turning their heads to look at Patty when the historian spoke up.

“You guys are so cheesy”, she accused, “now I got an appetite for a Philly cheesesteak, so I’m gonna go get one. You guys wanna come along?”

“Not me”, Erin shook her head, “after I just was on TV, I really don’t want to run into anyone who might ask stupid questions about it.”

“I’ll come if you don’t mind”, Holtzmann said, “I’ll bring one back for you, hot stuff. You too Abby?”

“Yes please”, Abby smiled, Erin getting off Holtzmann’s lap so the blonde could actually get up and pull on her jacket; they shared another kiss, then Patty and the engineer headed out while Erin sat down again, Abby taking a seat next to her and smiling at her.

“Just so you know”, she then said, “Holtz and I never had anything going on, before you wonder when I saw her abs, that woman knows no shame, so she ended up changing in front of me more often than I would have liked it after she set her clothing on fire at the lab.”

At this, Erin laughed, not surprised the slightest – they were talking about a woman who used blades which protruded from between her knuckles to serve snacks, after all; Abby chuckled as well, looking a bit concerned though when moments later, the physicist let out a groan and buried her face in her hands.

“God”, she then said, lifting her head again to look at Abby, “this might be too much information, but… I’ve only been with her for a few days and I want her so bad already. I feel like a teenager. Only I never experienced this as a teenager.”

She groaned again, managed a smile though when Abby reached out and rubbed her back, the researcher smiling back at her, eyes and voice kind when she replied. “You’re in love, Erin. I was going to call it a crush a first, but the way you look at her… I guess it’s more than that, huh?”

“Definitely”, Erin admitted, blushing a bit again, “maybe that’s insane, because we haven’t even known each other that long but… it just feels so right, you know?”

“I’m happy for you”, Abby solemnly told her, “for both of you. Don’t question it, just enjoy it. Be happy. You deserve it.”

“Thank you”, the redhead said, touched; the two friends hugged, then Abby cleared her throat, getting up from her seat and letting Erin know that it was her turn to go to the washroom now.

“Not to fantasize about Holtz’ abs though”, she added with a wink, laughing when Erin blushed again; the physicist swatted at her playfully, then got up as well and made her way to her desk while Abby vanished in the rest room, figuring she might as well get some work done while she waited for Patty and Holtzmann to return.

She hummed softly to herself as she worked, the song Holtzmann had accidentally put in her head the day they had moved into the restaurant; as it often happened, she got quite lost in her work, and only realized how much time had passed when Patty and Holtzmann came back with their food, chatting amiably as they entered the lab.

“We’re back”, Holtzmann announced, holding up the bag with the sandwiches, “and we bring food. Where’s Abby?”

“Washroom”, Erin replied, frowning as she realized how much time had passed since the researcher had gone there, “but she has been there a while, I’ll make sure she’s fine.”

While Holtzmann and Patty unpacked the food, the physicist made her way to the washroom and knocked the door, calling out “Abby?” when no response came; for a moment, she was tempted to use her powers, just to make sure, then decided against it, not wanting to intrude on her friend’s thoughts like that – especially if she wasn’t feeling well – and knocked once more instead.

“Abby?” she said again, raising her voice a bit, “you okay in there?”

She brought her hand up to knock for a third time, and just then, the door swung open and Abby stepped out; she stopped uncomfortably close to Erin, the redhead struggling to not step back, the feeling that something was wrong settling in the pit of her stomach at the look Abby gave her.

“Just fine, Erin”, the researcher said, and something about her voice was off, as well; frowning, Erin looked after her as she walked away from her, then glanced into the washroom almost automatically as she moved to close the door.

She saw the glob of green goo on the floor and froze.

_Oh my God._ Keeping her features carefully controlled, not wanting to let her terror show and tip whatever might be hiding within her friend off, Erin pulled the door close, then turned and looked at the researcher; she took in a deep breath, then _listened_ , and her eyes went wide at what she picked up.

_You bitches won’t know what hit you._ It was full of hatred, and anger… and it was Rowan’s voice.

“It’s Rowan!” Erin cried out, having a second to hope that the others would believe her, and wouldn’t waste time questioning her or wonder what she was talking about, having a second to feel relieved when she heard Holtzmann sniff audibly, her eyes going wide, then narrowing.

Abby’s head whipped around to glare at Erin, and for a moment, the physicist hoped Rowan inside her friend would waste valuable time questioning how she had known it was him; he didn’t do her that favour though, snarling instead – before he, figuring out shockingly quick how Abby’s power worked, vanished in a puff of blue and black smoke, and reappeared next to Holtzmann, the engineer only having time for a surprised “Hey!” when she was grabbed around the waist.

Erin realized a second too late what he was about to do, her eyes going wide as she cried out “No!”; in a desperate attempt to stop him, she tried to hold both Abby and Holtzmann in place with what telekinetic skill she had, but she hadn’t used this power in so long for anything bigger than doors and small objects, she failed miserably, and only could watch in horror how the dead man used Abby’s body and power to teleport out of the room – and up into the air outside, a strangled cry coming from Holtzmann when he let go of her and she fell, Erin screaming in wordless terror as she saw her rush past the window.

Rowan-in-Abby reappeared in the room, making a grab for Patty next; she grasped Abby’s bare hand with hers in response, and Erin saw her eyes flash up with a strange white light as her power kicked in, Abby letting out a strangled cry as her eyes rolled back in her head – before Rowan’s ghost rushed out of her and vanished through the roof, his laughter fading as he rushed off into the distance.

Patty caught Abby as her legs buckled beneath her, but no one had been there to catch Holtzmann, and Erin’s sight was blurred by tears as she ran past the two and down the stairs, somehow managing to not stumble and fall; she burst out through the front door, then rushed around the building, her stomach in knots and her heart beating up to her throat when she spotted Holtzmann motionless on the sidewalk.

“Oh God, oh God, no, no, no…” She didn’t even realize she was speaking out loud as she ran to where the blonde laid, in a growing puddle of blood; she couldn’t tell where it was coming from, and she morbidly wondered if this somehow was her fault, if she had jinxed their happiness when she had told Abby about it, when she had admitted that she was in love.

“Holtzmann”, she brought out as she fell down onto her knees next to the lifeless engineer, not even realizing that she knelt right in the blood, something which only would register later, “Holtz, oh God, no. Holtz? Please don’t be dead, please…”

Her hand trembled as she reached out, she wanted to check for a pulse, but she didn’t know if she could dare to, afraid that touching Holtzmann, just the tiniest, most harmless of touches, just fingers against her neck, would make her worse somehow; she pulled her hand back before she could make contact, dimly hearing how Abby and Patty came rushing around the corner behind her, Patty calling out “Oh shit!” while Abby seemed strangely calm.

_Maybe Rowan went back in her and is planning to finish what he started,_ Erin had time to think, her panic only increasing… and then, Holtzmann opened her eyes, and, in a perfectly clear voice, said “Shit”.

She sat up and audibly cracked her neck, and all Erin could do was stare.

“What?” she finally brought out, looking from the blood at Holtzmann again, asking herself if she had snapped now, if this had been too much and she was hallucinating; Patty let out a wordless croak as well though, proving she wasn’t the only one who was seeing this, and Abby was smiling, albeit a bit bashful.

“Um”, she said, making Erin look at her in confusion, “we can explain this. Well, Holtzmann can.”

“I heal fast”, Holtzmann added with a shrug, as if she hadn’t just been dropped onto the pavement from God knew how high, “ _really_ fast. I’m pretty hard to kill actually.”

Erin looked back at her, eyes going wide again – before she grabbed her and practically yanked her into a tight hug and let out a shaky breath, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back her tears.

“Don’t you ever”, she then said, unable to keep a tremble out of her voice, “ _ever_ scare me like this again. You hear? Never ever. I thought you’re dead!”

“I really should have mentioned that at some point”, Holtzmann mumbled, wrapping both arms around her and rubbing her back, “Holtzy sorry.”

“You definitely should have!” Erin scolded, pulling back so she could glare at her – before she smiled widely, then kissed her, not caring anymore that Abby and Patty could see as the kiss turned quite passionate quite fast, her relief so big that it almost overwhelmed her.

Holtzmann was okay, _perfectly okay_ , and once they’d dealt with Rowan’s ghost, she was sure that nothing would diminish their happiness anymore.


	12. Chapter 12

While Abby once more called the agents to tell them Rowan was indeed dead, but not quite resting in peace, Patty told them she’d take a few minutes outside to get Rowan out of her head – “I can still hear that creeper and it is not nice” – and Erin followed Holtzmann to the garage, claiming that she would help her with working in Ecto-1, and skilfully ignoring the look Abby shot her.

“I’m sorry for scaring you like that”, the engineer said once they had made it there and had some privacy, “I’m so used to the healing thing, and Abby is too, I guess we both forgot that Patty and you have no idea.”

“It’s okay”, Erin reassured her, smiling at her, still feeling almost overwhelmed by her relief that Holtzmann was fine, “I’m just glad you’re fine. So um… that metal stuff? Is it on all your bones? I heard that sound when you headbutted Rowan…”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann gave back, with a small shrug, “when I crack my toe on the doorframe, it’s the frame that gets a crack, not my toe.”

“Oh wow”, Erin replied with a small laugh, “so I’m dating an indestructible woman, then, huh? That’s good to know.”

The engineer smirked and shrugged again, Erin returning her smile before she stepped closer and put both arms around her, her smile widening when the younger woman returned the embrace at once.

“Seriously though”, the physicist said, growing solemn, “I’m glad you’re okay. Really glad. I got so scared when I saw you lying there…”

“I’m all fine”, Holtzmann reassured her, rubbing her back soothingly, “no worries, alright? I’d rather make you smile than frown.”

“I might have an idea how you can manage that”, Erin told her, then kissed her; the kiss started out gentle and slow, but quickly grew more passionate, a low groan coming from the engineer when she felt Erin’s hand slide beneath her shirt.

“I should warn you”, she mumbled, the heat in her gaze making Erin weak in the knees, “I not only heal fast, I also get worked up fast.”

“Is that so”, Erin asked innocently, her tone not fitting her actions as she trailed her fingertips over the other woman’s skin, following the line of her spine and making her shudder, “I guess I should be careful then, hm? Wouldn’t want to cause another claw boner.”

“Oh, shush”, Holtzmann said, to Erin’s amusement blushing a bit; she let out a little giggle, then kissed her again, and as the kiss deepened once more, she surprised the engineer by letting her hand glide down her back again – until it landed on her butt and she gave a firm squeeze.

“I got a feeling we might end up fighting our pale creepy friend again soon”, Erin said, “and what happened today, while you are perfectly fine now, it showed how dangerous this can be so… I don’t want to waste any time.”

“Good point”, Holtzmann still had time to say, then Erin was kissing her again, and she was more than glad to adapt her “let’s not waste any time” idea, something she demonstrated quickly by sliding her hands beneath the physicist’s shirt.

Just when she cupped the other woman’s breast though, the door opened, and they hurriedly pulled apart, Erin flushing visibly while Holtzmann just looked put out, both of them forgetting their dismay about the interruption at once though when they saw it was Abby – and saw the look on her face.

“Rowan’s got Kevin”, she said, not bothering to beat around the bush, “Agent Rourke just called. We have to get to the Mercado and stop him, now.”

“I’ll meet you guys outside”, Holtzmann said, earning a questioning look from Abby and quickly elaborating, “I need to pick up a little something first. I’ll pick you up at the front door.”

Erin took the time for one more quick kiss, then hurried to follow Abby, Patty already suited up and ready to go by the time they made it to their lockers and quickly pulled on their coveralls, as well.

The physicist grabbed Holtzmann’s, figuring the engineer would need them; she had a moment to appreciate the improvements which had been made to them, in the form of nametags and their logo sewn onto the sleeve, making them look quite a bit more like a team and like professionals.

“Police and the military are on their way, too”, Abby told them as they hurried to the front door, “but if he manages to create the vortex, their weapons won’t be of much—”

The earth trembled beneath them, the three women grabbing on to each other for support; Abby paled as she realized what this meant, saying out loud what everyone was thinking just when Holtzmann drove Ecto-1 around the corner.

“Too late”, the researcher said, exchanging worried looks with Erin and Patty, “I think it’s just begun.”

* * *

They drove as close to Times Square as it was possible, until the barrage of stopped cars and thrown-over vendor carts forced them to stop; ghosts were rushing through the air at this point, laughing maniacally and clearly having fun, and to make it even worse, one of them, an oddly pear-shaped one which was making quite the disgusting noises, stole the car just seconds after they had gotten out of it.

“Great”, Abby sighed, looking after Ecto-1 unhappily as the ghost drove away with it, shouting in glee, “we just gave a ghost a nuke. We better fix this quickly.”

“Agreed”, Holtzmann said, gesturing at something up ahead, “but before we can do that, we’re about to get company.”

Erin frowned as she looked at the balloons the engineer had pointed out to them up ahead; they looked vaguely like parade balloons, only much creepier, and as if they had felt her staring, one of them turned its head and looked at her, letting out a somewhat disturbing laugh.

“Aaaand they noticed us”, Patty said, pulling her proton wand from the pack, “Holtzy, these streams are gonna work against them?”

“They should”, the engineer told her, reading her own weapon along with Erin and Abby, “but only one way to find out, huh?”

The four of them started firing in perfect unison, and one by one, the balloons exploded; the last one, a sort of marshmellow man, got frightening close, but the four streams were powerful enough in the end, and he burst just second before he could fall down onto the group and trap them beneath his body.

“Okay, good job Ladies”, Abby said, “but I got the feeling this is just the beginning, so we better stay alert.”

They continued on their way, ghosts flying past them – and ignoring them, to their surprise; it look as if they all were headed where they were going, and Erin didn’t fancy the thought of the ghosts amassing into some sort of army, feeling quite uneasy at the idea.

“Hey Holtz”, she said, making the engineer look at her, “remember when you said the proton shotgun might take out two to three ghosts at once? Well… guess we’ll find out soon, huh?”

“Yup”, Holtzmann gave back, clearly not as concerned by the thought as Erin was – but then, the physicist thought to herself, the blonde pretty much had shrugged off being dropped onto the pavement, from a height which would have killed or at least badly hurt a regular human, so she obviously didn’t need to worry about getting hurt during the fight.

_Unlike Abby, Patty and me,_ she thought to herself, feeling nervous; the engineer gave her another look, and quickly figured out what was going through the physicist’s mind, grasping her hand in an attempt to make her feel better.

“It’s gonna be okay”, she said, earning a doubtful look from the redhead, “we’ll kick ass, no worries, hot stuff.”

“I wish I had your confidence”, Erin sighed, falling silent when Kevin’s voice came up, unnaturally loud and booming, saying words which weren’t his, confirming that Rowan had possessed him once he had been forced out of Abby.

“Welcome, Ghostbusters”, he said as they reached Times Square and got a better look at the assembled ghosts, “to the glory days of New York City. Have fun!”

He laughed, and Erin had a moment to wonder where the agents and police and military Abby had mentioned were; and then, the first group of ghosts noticed them, as one which apparently led them, an unnaturally tall one on stilt-like legs, pointed them out to the apparitions.

“You’ve all got your sidearms, I suggest you use them”, Holtzmann said as she pulled her proton wand from the pack; Abby nodded bravely, momentarily wondering if the engineer didn’t have a special weapon of her own, then shrugging if off, telling herself that they all had to focus on the fight now.

“Never been good in a fight”, Erin mumbled, sounding nervous; trying to sound reassuring, Abby joked about how now, it was her chance to learn then – before she readied her proton wand, Patty and Erin following suit, and the battle began, the Ghostbusters using their proton wands and the streams they created to throw the ghosts back into the mist they seemed to originate from, which, to their relief, apparently sent them back to the dimension they had come from.

It went fine, for a while; then, a flying ghost snatched Erin up from behind and pulled her a few feet up in the air, then dropped her, right into the waiting grasp of a tall Puritan ghost; taking note of her struggling in his grasp, Abby came to her rescue by throwing a grenade at his feet, only to get snatched up herself a second later.

“Oh shoot”, Erin let out, taking careful aim before she fired; thankfully, she didn’t hit Abby, and the ghost let go of her, the researcher letting out a grunt when she hit one of the abandoned cars.

Rolling off the hood, she hurriedly pulled on the proton glove, and started punching ghosts left and right; Erin admired her spunk for a moment, then a roar distracted her, and she turned to see the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge and the ghost from the subway come rushing at her.

“Aw, not you guys again!” she complained, quickly holstering the proton wand and pulling the shotgun Holtzmann had made her from the holster at her upper thigh, “say Hello to my little friend!”

She fired, and the blast was enough to take them both out, just like Holtzmann had said; she took a moment to make sure her guard was up and in place, not wanting to end up with the ghosts screeching right in her brain again, then turned, just in time to see how Patty used her Ghost Chipper on the winged ghost from the Stonebrook theatre, hurriedly hopping out of the way before the slime could hit her.

“Missed me!” she proudly announced, only to gasp when another ghost slammed Patty against a van right behind her; the historian dropped the Chipper, and the ghost stepped on it, Abby yanking one of the grenades from the belt across her chest and throwing it.

Already when it was in the air, Erin could tell that Abby had misjudged, that it would fly too far and miss the target; and without thinking, she reached out and used her powers, stopping the grenade in mid-air, gritting her teeth as she corrected its course, now regretting that she had used this so little in the past years.

_I’ll have to remember to practice more,_ she still had time to think – then the tall leader ghost let out a wordless shout and pointed at them, just as a new onslaught of ghosts came running out of the mist.

“Hey Erin”, Holtzmann said, moving to her side and grinning in a slightly manic way at which Erin wasn’t sure if she should find it frightening or arousing, “remember how you said my claws won’t help against a ghost?”

“Yes?” Erin replied, not sure to what to expect; Holtzmann gave her another grin, something wild and feral dancing in her eyes when she looked at her, Erin wondering what it said about her that she definitely felt aroused now, no matter how inappropriate this was in this very moment.

“They do now”, Holtzmann said, the blades popping out a second later, poking holes through the gloves she was wearing; and apparently, Erin realized, she had made some adjustments to said gloves, the engineer’s grin only widening when she used her thumbs to press the small buttons she had built into them.

There was an audible crackling noise, and the other three Ghostbusters went wide-eyed when proton streams coated the blades, Erin having to admit that they would indeed be quite useful against the ghosts now.

“You are crazy”, Abby still had time to say, making her the recipient of the blonde’s manic grin; and then, Holtzmann went to work, and all Erin could do was stare, no matter how inappropriate it was.

It was quite clear that this wasn’t the first time Holtzmann used her blades in combat, even though Erin was quite sure it was the first time that she using them to fight ghosts; the engineer was gritting her teeth as she slashed at ghosts left and right, disintegrating them with ease.

It was fortunate, Erin thought to herself, that Holtzmann going into battle up close with the ghosts pretty much distracted them from the other Ghostbusters; thanks to that, she could watch, feeling decidedly warmer when she watched how the engineer dropped to her knees to avoid a throwing axe which had been flung her way, then performed a sort of backhanded upward slash, yet another ghost being torn apart as the claws cut through it.

“Man, she’s really good at that”, Patty commented, making Erin feel somewhat glad that she wasn’t the only one completely mesmerized by the sight; she winced when one the apparitions used a ghostly knife to slash the engineer across the face, blood trickling down her cheek for a few seconds – before the cut closed up again, Erin’s fascination only growing at how fast the flesh was knitting back together.

Even though she had seen the increased healing at work now, and had witnessed how much damage it could deal with within moments when Holtzmann had been dropped by Rowan, Erin couldn’t hold back noises of sympathy whenever the engineer took a hit; fighting the ghosts with her claws brought her close enough to them to allow them to fight back, their numbers alone being enough to give them chances for that, but Holtzmann didn’t let any of her briefly inflicted injuries slow her down, mowing through the ghosts with impressive ease.

Finally, there was just the long-legged leader ghost left, and Erin had a second to wonder how Holtzmann was planning to take him down, if she’d go for the legs first; then, the engineer called out “Abby! Get me up there!”, and from the way the researcher grinned, Erin immediately suspected that this wasn’t the first time they pulled off a stunt like that.

A second later, Abby vanished from her side, and reappeared next to Holtzmann; she grasped her around the waist, pretty much like Rowan had, both of them vanishing into thin air, then popping back into existence right above the ghost, Abby letting go of Holtzmann before she teleported back to Erin’s side.

The whole thing had taken no longer than a few seconds, and Holtzmann didn’t need much extra time to finish the leader ghost off; she fell straight down onto it, and practically sliced it in two, a loud crackling noise echoing through Times Square when she landed on the pavement and the ghost disintegrated.

“Ha!” Holtzmann let out, raising her fists in triumph, the proton streams still crackling on her blades, “you just got Holtzmanned, baby!”

“Damn right I did”, Erin told her as she marched up to her, grasped her collar and yanked her closer for a quite passionate, deep kiss; Abby and Patty rolled their eyes, made no comment though, simply waiting patiently until they had pulled apart again, Abby speaking up the moment they were focusing on Patty and her again.

“Alright, Ladies”, she said, holstering her proton wand and the glove, “let’s go get our receptionist back. We won’t find another one that pretty.”

The other three nodded, and once Holtzmann had switched off the proton streams and had retracted her claws, Erin grasped her hand, taking a deep breath as they got moving, quite sure that the big battle of the day was yet to come.


	13. Chapter 13

The sight which presented itself to them in front of the Mercado was quite bizarre, and showed them how powerful Rowan was now that he had become a ghost; a bunch of policemen and soldiers were frozen in a strange Saturday night fever like pose, and a closer look revealed the agents from the mayor’s office among them, Erin rolling her eyes as they walked past them.

“Good job protecting the country”, Abby said snidely, not sure if they could hear her, but figuring it was worth a shot, “really, quite impressive.”

Holtzmann was eying the frozen men and women with obvious dismay, prompting Erin to squeeze her hand reassuringly; then, they were in front of the Mercado, and the doors opened as if by magic, making it quite obvious that Rowan knew they were there.

They slowly entered the lobby, proton wands ready again, glancing around; a few melodious notes from the piano in the corner broke the silence, and they all automatically looked over – just in time to see how the instrument got moving, with surprising speed, and rushed towards them.

Holtzmann’s first instinct was to push Erin behind herself, knowing she’d be able to take it – it would hurt, having fast healing didn’t mean that she felt no pain, but unlike her friends and girlfriend, she had practically unbreakable bones, and was more than willing to go through a bit of pain if it meant that the other three would be alright.

Before she had the chance to move though, Erin brought her hand up, gritting her teeth hard; she hadn’t moved anything bigger than doors and small objects, but she didn’t try to stop the piano, simply changing its course a bit instead, so that it rushed past them and hit the wall.

“Aw”, Kevin’s voice came up, followed by the man appearing on top of the stairwell, “I missed. Which one of you helped it along there?”

“Get out of Kevin”, Abby commanded in reply, not bothering to answer him, “and face us directly, you coward!”

“Kevin, huh”, he gave back, “that is that thing’s name, then? Looks more like a Chad to me. But, well… I can feel myself getting dumber by the second in this body so…”

He hopped up onto the bannister keeping people from falling down into the lobby, a smirk curling his lips – before he left Kevin as a greenish mist, and the blonde man slumped forward, clearly out cold, the women crying out before they rushed forward to catch him, Erin and Abby ending up pinned beneath him.

“God, what is he made off”, Abby groaned as they struggled to get his dead weight off of them, the man either unconscious or asleep – Erin hoped it was the first option, because if he was sleeping through all this, she would be pissed; they moved Kevin off of them and dragged him out of the danger zone, Rowan’s ghost laughing at their efforts.

“Let’s get the bastard”, Patty said, sounding quite angry, “no one hurts Kevin, you hear?! No one!”

He showed himself in response, just long enough so they could fire; he laughed again as he flew out of the way, teasing about their aiming skill and prompting Abby to ask him if he had gotten his virginity from the Lost & Found yet.

“Perhaps I should make this easier for you”, he said in response to that, chuckling, “which form would you like me to take?”

“Something stationary”, Holtzmann suggested, her deadpan tone making Erin smile despite the serious situation, “like a bull’s eye?”

“A cute, friendly ghost”, Patty said next, when the engineer’s idea wasn’t met with much approval; Rowan chuckled and, as an answer, appeared in front of them looking like their logo, small and cute and even somewhat cuddly.

Then, he laughed again and started to grow, the women watching with rising terror how he got bigger and bigger; he roared, creating a wave of slime which tore it with them when it rushed out of the hotel, the building crumbling under the onslaught of his fists moments later.

“We gotta run!” Abby cried, not even thinking about teleporting away, all too aware that her friends didn’t have this skill, and while she could transport one person, she was pretty sure that three would be too much, “come on!”

As one, they turned and ran, Rowan stomping after them, as big as a three story building by now; and as they ran, they tried to figure out how to solve this, until the Ecto-1 raced past them and Patty had the idea which hopefully would save them all.

* * *

After Patty’s brilliant suggestion of shooting the nuclear equipment on top of the car to create a sort of giant ghost trap, everything happened very fast; the explosion turned the swirling green vortex Rowan had created into an oversized ghost trap, and one by one, the ghosts got sucked into it.

For a few seconds, Rowan managed to avoid this fate as he clung to the nearest buildings; the Ghostbusters all shot him the crotch though, and when he let go to protect parts which weren’t technically even there anymore, the vortex sucked him in, as well.

And on the way down, he made one last desperate grab for the Ghostbusters; Abby pushed Erin out of the way when the large, thick hand rushed towards her, and ended up snatched instead, hearing the other three cry out as he dragged her into the portal with him.

She didn’t worry though, once again thankful for her power… until she tried to use it, and it didn’t work. Then she began to panic and to scream and to struggle, and even though he was falling to his certain end, Rowan laughed.

Desperate, Abby tried again to teleport, and again it didn’t work; and just when she started to resign to her fate, a figure in the distance caught her eye, her heart skipping a beat when she realized who it was.

_Oh my God, Erin, what have you done?!_

As Erin got closer, she saw something else, some sort of glinting silver cable attached to the physicist’s waist; and when Erin fired a bright proton stream at Rowan’s hand and he roared and let go of her, Abby allowed herself to hope that maybe, just maybe, they somehow might make it out of this.

Rowan vanished in the depths of the vortex with another roar, one of pain and dismay this time; and just a second later, Erin reached her, and grasped her arms, looking as if she was about to cry when she told her that she wasn’t going to leave her a second time.

Touched, Abby smiled back at her, getting ready that it was okay and that she had forgiven Erin a while ago… and just when she opened her mouth, there was a mighty yank from the cable tied around Erin’s waist, and then they were being pulled back, Erin gripping Abby as tight as she could.

“Hold on tight!” she cried over the loud rushing of the vortex around them, “we’re gonna make, it we’re gonna be okay!”

Abby still had time to nod and smile at her, and then, they were yanked back out, and the world went black around both of them.

* * *

The cable went slack so unexpectedly that both Holtzmann and Patty ended up stumbling back and falling, the vortex practically spitting Erin and Abby back out; and while they still were landing on the sidewalk, the vortex closed, and everything was as it had been before Rowan had opened it.

“Shut _up_ ”, Holtzmann cheered, coming to her feet again, Patty hurriedly getting up, as well; they both were smiling as they rushed to where Erin and Abby laid, their smiles fading quickly though once they had reached them and knelt down next to them.

Neither of them was breathing.

“Oh shit, oh shit”, Patty fretted, frantically searching for a pulse – before Holtzmann grabbed her arm, already peeling the glove on her other hand off with her teeth, sounding as frantic as Patty felt when she spoke up.

“You said you can transfer powers, didn’t you”, she said, Patty staring at her wide-eyed as she realized what the engineer was aiming for, “do it then, with me and them, and make them fine again! Please!”

Patty wanted to protest, wanted to remind her of what would happen, should she do this; one look at Holtzmann’s face was enough though to show her that nothing she could say would make the engineer change her mind, and instead of arguing about what the blonde wanted to do, she simply pulled her gloves off.

“Put your hand on my arm”, she then instructed, oddly calm now even though she knew what would happen; she pushed her sleeve up so Holtzmann could touch her skin to skin, and the moment the engineer had placed her bare hand on her forearm, she put her hands onto the foreheads of Erin and Abby, closing her eyes as she concentrated.

She hadn’t transferred powers often in her life, but she knew it could be done, and it didn’t take long until she felt Holtzmann’s healing powers; she made a mental grab for them, and fuelled them into Erin and Abby, feeling her calm vanish though when nothing happened.

“Come on”, she heard Holtzmann mumble next to her, the blonde either not feeling anything yet or having such outstanding healing that it wouldn’t affect her to give it away like this, “come on, this has to… to wo-work…”

Her breath hitched, and Patty looked over at her just in time to see the slash down her cheek reappear as if by magic; it hurt her heart when Holtzmann let out a choking noise as other wounds reopened, too, blood trickling from the holes and tears in her coveralls as cuts and gashes reappeared.

Even though she wanted to pull her arm away and stop this, Patty let her hold on, and kept holding on to the other two women – until, at exactly the same moment, Erin and Abby pulled in a deep gasp of a breath and Holtzmann’s eyes rolled back in her head, her body hitting the sidewalk with a low _thump_ as she collapsed.

* * *

Erin’s head felt as if someone had spent an hour hitting it with a mallet, just for the fun of it, and she groaned as she opened her eyes; the sunlight above her was too bright, and she squinted, for a moment not knowing where she was or what had happened – until she remembered, and was wide awake and aware within seconds.

_The vortex. Rowan. Abby. Abby!_

She tried to sit up, Patty’s voice reaching her ears and telling her to take it easy; Erin slumped back down and croaked out “Abby”, glad when Patty’s face appeared in her field of view, the historian giving her best to look reassuring as she told her that Abby was fine.

Erin had a second to smile at this, then an image from Patty’s mind flashed through her brain, her guard weakened after what had happened, and her blood ran cold, her eyes going wide, the startled, then alarmed look on Patty’s face showing that she was quite aware of what she accidentally just had let Erin see.

It had been Holtzmann, bloodied and lifeless on the ground, and Erin just had to turn her head a bit to see the image with her own eyes and all too clearly.

“No”, she brought out, ignoring how dizzy it made her feel as she hurriedly sat up, then crawled the brief distance to the motionless blonde, ignoring Patty’s call that she shouldn’t move yet, “no! Holtzmann!”

“Erin”, Patty tried to calm her down again, torn between stopping her and helping Abby, the researcher sitting up and looking quite groggy, Patty grabbing her when it looked as if she might slump back down, Erin taking the chance given by this distraction and crawling the last few feet, feeling like throwing up by the time she’d made it to Holtzmann’s side, not sure if this was caused by the exertion or by the sight in front of her.

It had been obvious where Holtzmann had been hurt during her close-up fight with the ghosts, the holes and tears in her coveralls having shown it all too well; and somehow, Erin wasn’t quite sure how or why, all these injuries had come back, and there was blood _everywhere_.

A few of the deeper wounds were still bleeding, Erin saw, her stomach turning; she felt faint and helpless as she stared at the engineer, not sure what to do – she wanted to pull her into her arms and hold her, but that might only make her worse, her mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do, how to help the younger woman.

“We have to call an ambulance”, she finally brought out, turning her head to look at Abby and Patty, not quite sure yet what had happened to Holtzmann, but figuring that she could worry about this later, “she needs help, a doctor…”

“We can’t”, Abby flatly replied, having recovered enough to move to her side, and earning a look of disbelief, “Patty gave Holtz’ healing to us, we weren’t breathing when we came back from the portal. It’s not gone forever, it’ll kick back in at some point, and explaining that at the hospital… not to mention that, if the wrong person notices, the people who… did the metal thing to her might come after her. We can’t risk that.”

“Look at her!” Erin snapped in reply, “she’s hurt all over! We have to do _something_!”

“And I know what exactly we will do”, Abby replied, casting a nervous glance at the police and army personnel, even though they were much too busy making sure they all were fine and weren’t paying much attention to the Ghostbusters, “but not here. We have to get her back to the restaurant, Patty, I’ll need help carrying her, all that metal on her bones makes her way heavier than she looks.”

“I can carry her”, Kevin threw in from behind her, making her jump as she hadn’t expected that at all; thankful that he was quite strong though, she nodded at once, glad when he smiled a dopey smile at her and made it obvious that it was indeed him and that any trace of Rowan was gone.

“Okay, careful”, Abby instructed, Erin wringing her hands when Kevin picked the lifeless engineer up on his arms, Patty helping the physicist to her feet and making sure she could stand before they all got moving, heading back to their lab.


	14. Chapter 14

Already on the way, Abby had made a phone call, Erin not able to figure out whom she had been talking to; and she hadn’t been on the phone for long, only having said “Holtzmann’s hurt, we’ll meet you at the lab” and giving the address to whoever she was talking to, and by the time they arrived at the restaurant, a woman was standing at the entrance, tall and stern-looking, Erin feeling intimidated just from how the woman was studying them as they walked closer.

“I thought I’d heard you wrong when you said Holtzmann’s hurt”, she said without greeting, zeroing in on Abby before her gaze moved to the still unconscious engineer, “but apparently, I did not. How did this happen?”

“Long story”, Abby replied, “I’ll tell you while you patch her up. You can do that, right?”

“Certainly”, the woman replied, then looked at the other women and at Kevin questioningly; Abby quickly introduced them, letting them know that this was Dr Rebecca Gorin, not revealing how the woman knew Holtzmann though, and Erin still feeling too intimidated by the scrutinizing look the doctor was giving her to ask.

“You have a couch somewhere in there, do you”, Dr Gorin said once she had stared at them all enough for her liking, “I imagine a bed is too much to ask for?”

Abby let out a vaguely agreeing noise, then led the way to said couch; she told Kevin to be careful, and he nodded, lowering the blonde down onto the couch as tenderly as he could, grimacing at the blood on his hands and arms once Holtzmann laid safely on the couch, prompting Patty to put one hand on his back and tell him that he should come with her so she could help him clean up.

“I need a first aid kit”, Dr Gorin said, “and scissors, and something to disinfect these wounds. Tell me how exactly this happened.”

Erin went to get the items the doctor had asked for while Abby quickly filled her in on what had exactly had happened; Erin heard only half of it when she came back, but she knew enough to not be bothered much by this, surprised that the look in the elder woman’s eyes had softened considerably by the time Abby had finished.

“Oh Jillian”, Dr Gorin said once Abby had fallen silent, shaking her head, “the things you do once you let someone into your heart. You’ll never learn, will you?”

For a second, Erin was confused about who Jillian was, then realized that this was Holtzmann’s first name and nearly smacked herself; she was so used to calling the younger woman by her surname that she almost had forgotten she actually had a first one, and felt quite stupid, a feeling she pushed aside quickly though as she watched how Dr Gorin used the scissors to cut the blonde’s coveralls from her body.

Erin felt sick as this brought all the wounds into view, shocked at how _many_ there were; and apparently, all the doctor was going to do was to disinfect them and cover them up with a bandage, the physicist wondering if she really knew what she was doing, especially when some of the deeper wounds were given the same treatment.

“I’m not stitching these up for a reason, you know”, Dr Gorin said, making the redhead jump and wonder if she wasn’t the only mind reader in the room, “once her healing kicks back in, stitches would only be in the way.”

“Do you have any idea when this might happen?” Erin wanted to know, wringing her hands nervously again, her anxiety only growing when the other woman shook her head, a small sigh coming from her as she kept her focus on Holtzmann and on patching her up.

“No, because she’s never done something like this in the time I’ve known her”, she let Erin know, briefly glancing at her before her gaze returned to the engineer, “so there’s no precedent. I imagine it also depends on how much damage she had to heal for Dr Yates and you.”

Erin sighed, because she had no idea how much damage exactly Holtzmann had taken care of for them; Dr Gorin gave her a tight, but still somewhat reassuring smile, then finished patching the engineer up, straightening up afterwards and declaring that she would go and wash her hands.

The physicist wasn’t sure if she expected a response, but nodded, anyway; and while the elder woman walked off, Erin sat down on the floor next to the couch and took hold of Holtzmann’s hand, not willing to let her out of her eyes even for a second, willing to spend the whole night on the floor like this if she had to.

* * *

After all the excitement, Erin had drifted off into a light slumber, the events of the day taking their toll on her; her position wasn’t exactly comfortable though, and so she jerked awake after not all too long, blinking as she let go of Holtzmann’s hand to rub at her tired eyes.

Belatedly, she noticed that someone had put a blanket over her while she had been asleep, wondering if it had been Patty or Abby, and asking herself where they had gone; then, she heard soft voices from one of the booths at the other end of the room, and realized where they were, deciding to check on Holtzmann before she’d go join them.

She turned to look at the blonde, and froze, her eyes briefly going wide – the gash which had run down one of the blonde’s cheeks was gone, and after a moment of just staring, Erin hurriedly peeled off the next best bandage she got her hands on, allowing herself to hope when she saw that the wound which had been beneath it was gone, as well.

“You don’t have to peel them all off”, Holtzmann said in a raspy voice just when she reached for the next one, making her jump, “I’m fine.”

“Jesus, Holtz”, Erin replied, relief flooding her, “thank goodness! I was so worried…” For a moment, she wasn’t sure if she should smile or cry, then settled on the first option as she threw her arms around the engineer; Holtzmann hugged her back at once, the ease with which she moved showing that all her wounds were indeed gone without a trace.

“Sorry”, the engineer apologized, “but it was the only thing I could think of. You guys weren’t breathing and the thought of losing you…”

“You saved us”, Erin replied, pulling back a bit so she could look at her, “thank you.”

“Well, Patty did, kinda”, Holtzmann told her, blushing a bit, to the physicist’s slight astonishment, “all my powers would have been good for nothing if she hadn’t transferred them. The four of us make a good team, don’t we?”

“Indeed, we do”, Erin agreed, smiling, “we saved the city. Maybe even the world.”

Holtzmann nodded, then leaned in for a brief, but tender kiss; afterwards, she got up from the couch, clearly not caring that she was in her bloodstained underwear, and told Erin that she’d find some clothes, belatedly noticing the way the physicist was staring at her, looking as if someone had hit her over the head.

“…what?” she asked, frowning a bit, “I’m fully okay again, right? You see something somewhere?”

“Abs”, Erin blurted out in reply, then covered her face as she blushed brightly, “oh my God, I’m sorry. I mean… um… I…”

Holtzmann let out a chuckle, and Erin only blushed deeper, mortified; clearly, the engineer didn’t mind though, sounding amused and a bit flattered when she told her that she would go and get cleaned up, Erin only managing a brief nod, still staring at the rather well defined body of her partner.

_Wow_ , was all she could think, glad when the heat slowly faded from her cheeks; once she could be sure she didn’t resemble a tomato anymore, she went to join Abby and Patty, somewhat surprised to find that Dr Gorin was still there, too, the elder woman giving her a questioning look as she asked if her joining them meant that Holtzmann was feeling better.

“Yes”, Erin confirmed, smiling as she slid into the booth next to Abby, “she’s cleaning up right now, but all the wounds are gone.”

“She still shouldn’t be alone tonight”, Dr Gorin advised, “just to be on the safe side. This has never happened to her before, so there might be delayed side effects.”

“She can stay with me”, Erin said, just a bit too fast; Patty rolled her eyes while Abby side-eyed her and smirked, the physicist blushing, but not taking back her offer.

“Ah”, Dr Gorin let out, raising an eyebrow at her, and Erin fought the urge to hide her face in her hands again, “I see. Thank you, then, I’m positive you’ll take good care of Jillian.”

“I will”, Erin mumbled, fidgeting on the seat a bit; to her relief, nobody else made any comment though, and once Holtzmann joined them, all cleaned up and properly dressed now, they refrained from making any commentary when Erin offered to take her home with her, just for safety reasons, of course, even though the smirk Holtzmann gave her said more than enough.

Still Erin stuck to her offer, eager to have some alone time with Holtzmann; and so, a short while later, the two were on their way to her apartment, and she felt oddly giddy and a bit nervous as she looked forward to what they would do there.

* * *

Quite a while later, Erin and Holtzmann had ended up on the physicist’s couch, kissing passionately; at first, they had been sitting side by side, but by now, Erin had migrated onto Holtzmann’s lap (“I’ll squish you if I sit on you, hot stuff”), her hands entangled in the other woman’s hair, a low moan coming from her when she felt the engineer slide one hand beneath her shirt and caress her bare back.

“You know”, Erin told her, voice rough with lust, “I had an ulterior motive when I offered that you could stay at my place tonight.”

“Did you”, Holtzmann gave back, smirking, the glint in her eyes showing Erin that she wasn’t the only one who felt turned on; it was almost like the wildness she had seen shortly before the engineer had fought the ghosts up close, and like it had back then, it turned her on now, too, enough so she didn’t even wonder anymore what this said about her.

“Uh-huh”, she let out, smiling when she felt how Holtzmann began to fumble with the clasp of her bra, “I was thinking about continuing what stupid Rowan and his stupid vortex interrupted when we were in the garage. Might be more fun on this couch, too… or in my bed…”

“Agreed”, Holtzmann said, sounding a bit distracted though; Erin realized that she had a bit of trouble with her bra, realizing just a second too late what the blonde was about to do when her eyes narrowed.

“Holtz!” she still tried to stop her, a warning tone in her voice, “don’t you—” The _snikt_ interrupted her as the engineer popped out one claw and cut the strap; glaring at her, Erin finished her sentence with “dare”, then swatted at her arm.

“That bra cost forty dollars!” she let Holtzmann know, indignant, “seriously? You just should have let me open it!”

“I’ll buy you a new one”, Holtzmann mumbled into her ear, then lowered her head to run her tongue over the sensitive skin of her throat; and immediately, Erin forgot all about her bra, leaning her head back to give the younger woman better access as a breathless moan escaped her.

At least, Holtzmann removed her shirt the regular way, pulling it over her head and tossing it aside; the ruined bra followed quickly, then the engineer, with gentle pressure, got Erin to lie down on her back, earning another moan when her lips closed around an already hardened nipple, one of her hands entangling in Holtzmann’s hair while the other came to rest on her back.

“Holtz”, she brought out in a trembling voice when the engineer started caressing her other breast, her hips twitching involuntarily, “God that feels so good…”

“Happy to hear, hot stuff”, Holtzmann mumbled, moving back up to kiss her again; as she did so, her hand slid from the physicist’s chest down her stomach to the hem of her pants, where she paused and gave the other woman a questioning look, earning a quick nod in reply.

She took a moment to give her a wink and a smirk, then quickly unbuttoned the redhead’s pants and pulled them off of her; and when she kissed the insides of her thighs, then ran her tongue over the heated skin, Erin moaned and trembled, so turned on at this point that she was quite sure the smallest contact between her legs would make her explode.

She never had felt this way before, with any of the men she had been with; and even the few women she had shared her bed with, during her brief rebellious time at college, before she had abandoned Abby and had supressed that part of herself just to fit in, hadn’t made her feel like this so fast.

Feeling Holtzmann tug at her underwear, she lifted her hips, before the engineer could get the idea to use her claws again; thankfully, Holtzmann simply pulled them down, then tossed them aside, giving the physicist another smirk – before she lowered her head and ran her tongue over the other woman’s folds, and Erin whimpered before she could stop herself, suddenly needing this so much it almost hurt.

Alarmed at her noise, Holtzmann stopped and looked up; Erin, in turn, was alarmed when the engineer did so, realizing quickly why Holtzmann had stopped, and not even needing to read her mind to figure it out.

“No, no”, she hurriedly reassured her, “don’t stop, please? That was a good noise. I promise.”

“Good to know”, Holtzmann replied with another smirk – before she lowered her head again and picked up where she had interrupted herself, and soon, Erin was moaning and squirming beneath her, the way she cried out her name as she came being the most beautiful thing Holtzmann had ever heard.

“God”, the physicist panted out once she could speak again, wiping sweat off her brow – and feeling incredibly turned on again when Holtzmann looked up at her and wiped her mouth, “wow. I don’t think I ever… you know. So fast. Wow.”

“Oh?” Holtzmann gave back, raising an eyebrow, a devilish smirk curling her lips, “challenge accepted. I have a lot of stamina, you know.”

Erin could just gape at her, and when Holtzmann lowered her head once more, all thoughts were soon forgotten.


	15. Chapter 15

After the time on the couch, the couple had moved on to the bedroom, but hadn’t gone to sleep immediately; instead, there had been two more rounds, until Erin had claimed that they had to stop now or she wouldn’t be able to walk in the next day. (There had been a brief moment of fright for the physicist, too, when she had returned the favour for the second time and, after lifting her head, had seen the silver glint between Holtzmann’s knuckles; the claws hadn’t come out fully though, only having peeked out a bit, the blonde still had blushed though, and had rolled her eyes when Erin had giggled and had said “Claw boner” yet again.)

After round two, they both had fallen asleep fairly quickly, Holtzmann spooning the physicist and rubbing her tummy in slow circles until she was slumbering deeply; and Erin had been expecting to sleep through the night undisturbed, especially since they hadn’t set an alarm, the Ghostbusters having agreed that they would meet in the next afternoon and that they all could need some rest after the exciting previous day.

What she hadn’t been expecting was to pick up what Holtzmann was dreaming next to her, realizing too late that she wasn’t used to having someone sleep over and that she hadn’t managed to keep up her guard as she had slumbered; and so, diffuse images invaded her dreams, making her groan in fear and pain as they had her firmly in their grasp and wouldn’t let her wake up.

_She’s back in the tank in the water and there are the needles and nobody cares that she screams when they come and dig into her flesh until they hit bone, she screams and tries to get away but the shackles hold her down and then the metal starts pumping in and coats her bones and it hurts it hurts IT HURTS and she screams and screams but they just watch, men in uniform and men in lab coats and a few women and then she sees the face and she screams again and her eyes open wide…_

…and she let out a gasp as she woke up, covered in sweat, her heart racing in her chest, her breath coming in harsh, rough gasps.

She knew at once that this hadn’t been her nightmare, and when Holtzmann let out a low moan next to her, she realized just as fast that, while she had woken up, the engineer was still trapped in the bad dream.

Remembering what Holtzmann had said about nightmare-stabbing, Erin wasn’t quite sure what to do, not wanting to end up hurt when trying to wake the engineer up; leaving her like that was not an option though, either, and so, she reached out and touched the other woman’s shoulder and said her name, pulling back at once when Holtzmann’s eyes snapped open.

Clearly, the engineer wasn’t fully aware where she was yet, as she let out a sort of throaty growl; her claws shot out and cut neat slices into the mattress, Erin quite thankful that it was just the mattress and not her body, giving her best to sound soothing and not as frantic as she felt when she spoke up again.

“Holtz”, she said again, wanting to touch her, but not daring to, “Holtz, it’s okay, you’re here with me, it’s okay, you’re safe…”

For a few more seconds, the engineer kept breathing heavily, with short, growly bursts; then, her eyes cleared, and she sat up as the blades slid back, Erin easily able to tell that she was embarrassed despite the darkness in the room when she realized what she had done to her mattress.

“I’m, um, I’m sorry”, she said, running a shaky hand through her hair, “I didn’t… I was…”

“Having a nightmare”, Erin finished for her, now daring to touch her and placing a soothing hand on her back, alarmed all over at how tense the blonde was, it felt as if she was resting her hand against a stone wall, “it’s okay, don’t feel bad, and no, before you ask, you didn’t hurt me. I woke up, I kind of… picked them up from you, I’m really not used to shield my mind while I’m sleeping, I’m sorry… I didn’t try to pry or anything…”

“I know”, Holtzmann reassured her, “I… I need some air…”

“The window”, Erin suggested, regretting that she didn’t have a balcony; she kept her hand on the engineer’s back as they walked to the bedroom window, Holtzmann quickly opening it and resting her hands on the windowsill, taking in a few deep breaths.

“I didn’t know”, she said after a while, staring straight ahead, “what they would do. They had… a scout, of sorts, a mutant who was looking for others at MIT, for someone… suitable for what they wanted to do.”

She swallowed heavily, and Erin rubbed her back, keeping her voice low when she said that Holtzmann didn’t need to tell her anything if it was too hard; Holtzmann shook her head at once, then glanced at her, a weak, somewhat sad smile curling her lips, one which was so different to her regular ones that it hurt Erin’s heart.

“This is what I’ve told Abby”, the engineer said, “and you deserve to know, too. Especially if we… do this relationship thing.”

Erin nodded at that, and kept rubbing her back; and after a few moments, Holtzmann continued, looking out into the night again, hands tightening on the windowsill.

“That mutant found me”, she let Erin know, “turned out I was perfect for their plans, thanks to the healing. And the claws. I had them before that happened, you know, but they were bone. The healing would guarantee that I wouldn’t die when they’d… coat my skeleton with the metal, and I didn’t, but it hurt, and I had no idea what they were planning when that mutant lured me to their lab… I’d never been good with making friends, so I was so glad to finally have one, I just went with him, like an idiot.”

“It’s not your fault”, Erin told her at once, making her look at her again, “these people… God, doing something like this to… how old were you? When this happened?”

“Nineteen”, Holtzmann let her know tonelessly, and Erin’s heart broke all over again, “they would have… I don’t know, used me to fight or whatever, maybe they just wanted to see if it actually could be done. Did you see…?”

“Dr Gorin?” Erin finished for her, making her nod, “yes. Among the scientists watching… it happen.”

“She felt bad”, Holtzmann told her, “while it was happening. She got me out afterwards, kept me hidden for a while, took care of me… The program was cancelled shortly after she’d gotten me out, apparently, it cost too much to do it, especially with the end result being that I’d vanished, and once we could be sure no military creeps would come after me, Dr Gorin made sure I could finish my doctorate and everything. She really saved my ass.”

Not sure what to say, apart from “I’m sorry”, Erin embraced the engineer instead; after a few moments, Holtzmann hugged her back and buried her face in the physicist’s shoulder, and Erin rubbed her back again, squeezing her eyes shut against her own tears when she felt the engineer tremble in her embrace.

_Nineteen. Jesus, she was just a kid, how could anyone do something like that?_

“I’m so sorry”, she finally said the phrase again after all, “no one should have to go through something like this, I’m sorry…”

Holtzmann just kept holding on to her, breathing heavily in an attempt to keep her emotions under control, the two standing next to the open window for a long time like that, until they both felt calm enough to return to bed and get as much as sleep as it would possible after this heartfelt confession.

* * *

In the next morning, Erin woke up first, Holtzmann snoring quietly next to her, one arm draped over her waist; for a while, she just laid there, enjoying the feeling of the engineer’s body close to hers, until nature’s call became too strong to ignore and she carefully moved the blonde’s arm off of her, then got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom.

When she returned, Holtzmann was sitting up in bed and looking at her, smirking as she said “Good morning”; Erin wished her the same, smiling when Holtzmann patted the bed invitingly, more than willing to crawl back in, holding up a hand though when the engineer moved to kiss her.

“Holtz, no”, she said, blushing a bit, “I have terrible morning breath and you have a sensitive nose!”

“That I want to kiss you despite my sensitive nose shows your morning breath isn’t that bad”, Holtzmann gave back, and Erin couldn’t quite argue with that; she smiled, and shrugged, then kissed the blonde, the kiss deepening quickly, a soft moan coming from the physicist when Holtzmann’s hand slid beneath the pyjama top she was wearing.

“Hmm”, she let out, pulling back from the kiss to raise an eyebrow at the engineer, “before breakfast, even? You do have a bit of a one track mind, don’t you?”

“Not my fault you’re so hot”, Holtzmann told her, making her blush, “you put my mind on that track just be smiling at me, you know.”

“Aw”, Erin let out, her blush deepening; the engineer smirked, then kissed her again, and not too long afterwards, Erin forgot all about her morning breath as she trembled beneath the other woman’s skilled hands and tongue.

After that pleasant start in the morning, Holtzmann proved once again that she indeed had quite the stamina, and demonstrated to Erin how satisfying shower sex could be; and after that, they moved on to the kitchen to have breakfast, the physicist giving Holtzmann a strict look when the engineer eyed the kitchen table, then grinned at her.

“Not on that table, Holtzmann”, Erin said strictly, “I eat most of my meals there, and apart from that, I don’t think I can handle… you know. One more. My legs are all trembling already, if you make me come again, I won’t be able to walk all day.”

“Alriiiiiight”, Holtzmann said, making the physicist smile at the exaggerated disappointment; she stole a brief kiss from the other woman, then started to make coffee while the engineer looked into the fridge, quickly finding everything they’d need to have a good breakfast.

While they ate, Erin’s phone vibrated on the table, and she glanced at it, smiling when she saw it was a text from Abby, even though she blushed a bit when she read what the researcher actually had written.

_Holtz and you having a good time? If you can get out of bed, the mayor’s PA wants to meet us at Finan’s at four, apparently, she has something to tell us from Mister Mayor. That ok with you guys?_

“She either knows about your stamina”, Erin told Holtzmann once she had let her read the message, “or she thinks I only took you here with me to have sex with you. Which is not that far from the truth, but not the _only_ reason I wanted to have you here with me.”

“What are the others?” Holtzmann wanted to know, smirking; Erin shrugged, then blushed a bit, her response making the engineer’s smile widen.

“I wanted to make sure you’re really okay”, the physicist let her know, “and, well… I like having you around. I know we haven’t known each other for that long but… you mean a lot to me already, so…”

“Same here”, Holtzmann reassured her, reaching over the table to grasp her hand, making her smile as well, “I’m really glad when you went to yell at Abby that one day, you know.”

“So am I”, Erin told her, laughing a bit; then, she bent over the table for a brief kiss before she finally wrote back to Abby and let her know they’d be there, the couple finishing their breakfast afterwards, both of them feeling relaxed and content, enjoying the time they had together.


	16. Epilogue

When they arrived at the bar, Abby and Patty were already there, but Jennifer Lynch was nowhere to be seen; figuring that she would be there sooner or later, Erin and Holtzmann sat down with the other two, Erin blushing at the look Abby shot her.

“I don’t even have to ask”, Abby said, laughing, “one look was enough, that blush says it all. Had a good time, huh?”

“The best”, Holtzmann answered, clearly not as embarrassed as Erin, earning a snort from Patty, “but no details, I’m not gonna lick and tell. 

“Don’t you mean kiss and tell?” Abby made the mistake to ask; Holtzmann grinned at her, winked and said “No”, and then it was Abby’s turn to blush as she realized that the engineer had been talking about.

“Holtzmann”, Erin scolded, blushing brightly, glad when the waiter stopped at their table to ask what they wanted to drink; they both ordered beer, and once the drinks had been brought, Holtzmann cleared her throat, the others looking at her questioningly when she came to her feet.

“I want to make a toast”, she declared, looking a bit uncomfortable, but clearly not willing to back down; curious, Erin exchanged a look with Abby, then the engineer went on, sounding oddly stilted and rushing her words, making it quite clear that she was somewhat uncomfortable, but not giving up.

“When I was young and realized what I am I thought I am the only one”, Holtzmann told them, “and I had enough trouble making friends even before that so I thought I’d never have any friends or family at all. Then I met Abby and she became such a good friend and then Erin came to the lab and I couldn’t stop thinking about her and I got lucky enough that she returned what I feel and when Patty and Kevin came, I got even more friends. I feel like I have a family now, I never thought I’d have any of this because people like me aren’t supposed to have any of this and yet here you all are and you all mean so much to me already and I love you guys.”

“We love you too”, Abby told her, while Erin could only swallow heavily, feeling on the verge of tears; she reached over to grasp the engineer’s hand the moment Holtzmann had sat back down, and smiled at her while Patty rubbed the blonde’s back, all of them able to see how close Holtzmann was to getting overwhelmed by her emotions.

Just as Holtzmann regained her self-control, Jennifer Lynch came to their table, apologizing for being late; she pulled a chair over and sat down, then cleared her throat, making sure she had the attention of all four Ghostbusters before she spoke up.

“The mayor thanks you for your discretion”, she said, “it’s not working, not at all, but he thanks you anyway. Not officially, of course, but he does thank you. And it has been decided that we need to be prepared in case something like this ever happens again, so you will receive government funding to continue studying this – unofficial funding – and the mayor’s office is ready to provide you with anything you need.”

“Anything?” Erin repeated, exchanging looks with the other three; and when Jennifer Lynch confirmed, she slowly started to smile, knowing what the first item of things they’d need would be.

* * *

“Admit it”, Abby said a few days later, smiling proudly as she looked at the building, “did you expect anything like this when you came to the lab to yell at me?”

“Not at all”, Erin replied, smiling, her smile widening when Holtzmann squeezed her hand next to her, “things really did work out for us, huh?”

“Indeed”, Abby agreed, and Erin briefly let go of Holtzmann to hug her best friend; then, Holtzmann said “Second floor’s mine!” and rushed to the firehouse’s entrance, Patty claiming that she couldn’t do that as she chased after her, the other two women laughing at the antics of the engineer and the historian.

Before Patty could follow Holtzmann inside though, and stop her from claiming an entire floor, a hearse drove up to the firehouse and she froze when a man popped out and demanded to know what had happened to the hearse he had let her borrow; and as she tried to explain that it was on the other side now, Erin and Abby went to check out their new lab, looking forward to the work they would do there and knowing that from there on, things would only keep improving for them.

End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! It is done. I had a ton of fun writing this, which is why I will begin posting the sequel to this here soon :D

**Author's Note:**

> I love GB, and I love X-Men, so of course I, being me, had to combine the two. I hope you guys will be along for this (sometimes wild ;D) ride :D


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